Kamen Rider Ryu
by Drake Dragonsoul
Summary: When a normal teenager discovers a two foot dragon in the park, he is thrust into a battle against the dragon's ancient enemy. Of course, he'd be more then happy to help, but first he needs proof that the evil creatures are really evil.
1. Episode 1: Flare Up!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kamen Rider, or anything whatsoever that is assorted with it, except for this fanfic.

Episode 1

Flare Up!

"I'm late!" Adrian shouted. "I'm late, I'm late! I'm late!"

He was running down the sidewalk, lunchbox in hand, his partially buttoned coat blowing in the wind that his running was creating. Several people stared at him as he blew past them. As he came to a street crossing, he had to grab the tree growing there to stop, or his speed would have carried him right out into the traffic.

Adrian continued his muttering of "I'm late" as he paced the edge of the sidewalk, waiting for the light to change so he could cross. Finally, the green walk symbol light up and he rushed across the street.

It was all his uncle's fault that he was late! If he had woken him up, instead of letting him sleep in! Honestly, Adrian didn't like school anymore then the next guy, but that didn't mean that he liked being tardy.

At least, the school wasn't too far of a run from the house, but it was still better to take the bus, especially since neither his aunt, nor his uncle could drive him, since they only had one car and his uncle needed that to get to work.

"Why me?" Adrian asked, as he entered the park. The good thing about walking to school was that you could go through the park. It wasn't much. Just your standard wooded area with cement paths and open fields, where families would have picnics, or people would play fetch with their dogs.

He was in too much of a hurry this time to appreciate his surroundings, but he did hear the rustling in the bushes around him. He stopped and glanced around. He was surrounded to his right and left by bushes; the rustling was coming from the right. It was probably just one of the homeless winos.

Something flew out of the bushes and collided with him, knocking him off his feet. He groaned and raised his head to see what the object was. He felt it roll over and suddenly found himself staring into a mouthful of teeth.

"Ah!" he screamed and batted the creature off of him, surprised at how easy it was.

Adrian leapt to his feet. He grabbed the nearest weapon he could find, a stick lying on the path, and raised it over his shoulder.

The creature rolled onto its feet. It looked a bit more like a robot then an animal actually. It was bright red with gold trimmings. It had two bat-like wings and a long tail ending in a golden triangle. It had four short legs and a long neck, ending in a lizard-like head with two backward swept horns. Its eyes were a dark blue color.

"You're a dragon!" Adrian exclaimed.

The dragon glared up at him. "Duh!"

"But you're so small!"

The dragon glanced down at itself and then up at him. "I'm not small, you're just too big."

Before Adrian could reply, the bushes rustled again and a black armored figure stepped out of them. The figure was human in shape, but beyond that didn't resemble a human at all. The parts of him that weren't covered with armor were covered by something that could have been scales, or mail. Its fingers ended in claws and its eyes lacked pupils and were just two red unblinking orbs beneath its visor. A large sword was strapped to its back.

"Get out of my way, boy," the knight-like creature growled. "My business is with the dragon, not you."

Adrian realized that he was indeed between the knight and the dragon. The knight began to slowly draw his sword, while the dragon hopped up and down angrily. "Come on! It's two against one, we can take him!"

The teen glanced back at the two foot tall dragon and then at the black knight. He tossed the stick at the knight's head and then grabbed the dragon by the tail and ran for it. He heard the knight's sword slice through the air and some of the bushes behind him.

If he had been moving fast when he was worried about being late for school, then Adrian must have been flying now. He got out of the bushes and into the park. He glanced back to see that the knight wasn't far behind, the armor didn't seem to slow him down much, neither did the large sword. As the knight ran, a dark purple light seemed to shine from him and his armor seemed to melt into his body, the scale-mail and even the sword also melted into his body. What replaced the knight was a black haired man wearing a leather trench coat and sunglasses.

"Help!" Adrian yelled.

"What do you mean 'help'?" the dragon asked. He opened his wings and caught the air. He flapped his wings trying to get away and slowing Adrian down in the process. "We can take him!"

"You want to get yourself killed then go ahead!" Adrian still didn't let go of the dragon's tail though.

"Halt!" Adrian looked over to see two police officers running toward the leather-wearing creep. The creep didn't look like he had any intention of halting though. Fortunately, the cops were close enough to the creep to tackle him before he could catch Adrian.

Adrian glanced forward and ran. He didn't care that the cops had caught his pursuer. He just wanted to get out of there.

--

The knight growled as the police hauled him up, his arms cuffed behind his back.

"All right, creep," one of the officers said shaking him roughly. "You're coming with us."

He growled as he watched his prey disappear around a corner. "I don't have time to waste with you."

The dark purple glow surrounded him again and he melted back into his monster form. He snapped the hand cuffs and spun to face the shocked police officers. He grabbed both of them by the throat and lifted them off of the ground. They groaned in pain as they struggled to take a breath, both of them managed to draw their guns and fire, but the bullets didn't seem to harm the monster at all.

He huffed as he dropped the human's limp bodies to the ground. Killing such inferior opponents was no fun.

Shifting back into human form, he spun around and walked away from the park. He had a pretty idea where his prey might have fled to and even if the dragon did leave the boy, he still deserved to die for getting in his way.

--

Adrian didn't stop running until he had reached the school. He stopped and sat on the steps to catch his breath, holding onto the dragon's tail tightly.

He looked up as his right foot felt unnaturally warm and he smelled something burning. The heat became unbearable and he looked down to discover that his shoe was on fire. He yelped and leapt up, stomping on his burning shoe with his other foot and trying not to fall over as he did. Finally, the fire was out, but his shoe was ruined.

The dragon chuckled as two trails of smoke rose out of his nostrils.

"What did you do that for?!" Adrian asked.

"You were holding onto my tail like it was a life preserver, or something," the dragon replied. "And you embarrassed me. I could have taken that guy by myself."

"You're two feet tall, if that," Adrian pointed out. "I always thought that dragons were supposed to be huge."

The dragon sighed. "I'm not going to bother explaining anything to someone who is scared of a fight."

"I'm not going to pick a fight I can't win," Adrian replied.

"Yeah, whatever," the dragon replied, turning and leaping into the air, only to be stopped in midair as Adrian grabbed his tail again. "Let go! I'm going to go give that armored idiot a piece of my mind."

"No way," Adrian said. "I'm not going to let you get yourself killed."

"What do you care?" the dragon asked as it was stuffed into Adrian's backpack. Adrian zipped it shut. "You know, I could burn out of here."

"I don't think you want to do that in front of the whole school," Adrian said, slinging the pack over his shoulder and entering the school.

"You're so weird," the dragon said as they walked down the empty hall. "You don't find it strange that you're talking to a dragon?"

"A little," Adrian replied. "Now, be quiet."

He pushed the door to his classroom open. He paused in the doorway as the whole class stared at him. A glance at the clock on the wall told him that he had arrived almost a whole hour late.

"Mr. Meadows, take your seat," the teacher, Professor Corbin ordered. Corbin was a skinny, short man with glasses. His skin was always colored red, like he had spent way too much time on the beach trying to get a tan. For some inexplicable reason, Corbin seemed to hate Adrian. Even though his uncle had promised to call in and explain why Adrian was late, Corbin was still going to try and use this to embarrass him. "In a timely manner, if you can possibly manage it."

The whole class snickered at that. Adrian sighed and sat down at his desk, setting his backpack at his feet.

He glanced over at the girl in the seat next to him. Mandy smiled at him cheerfully. Adrian returned a half-smile and glanced back at his backpack, more intent on watching it to see if it would burst into flame then paying attention to Corbin's math lesson.

--

"So, your uncle didn't get you up?" Mandy asked as they left the classroom and headed to lunch.

"No, he said that rest is sometimes more important then education, then my aunt whacked him right in the head with the newspaper," Adrian made a swinging motion with his arm.

"I wish my dad was like that," Mandy sighed.

"You wish you had to run to school, get there an hour late, and then have the teacher mock you in front of the whole class?" Adrian asked. _Not to mention get attacked by a Knights of the Round Table reject._

Mandy didn't answer. She was watching a confrontation that was taking place farther down the hall.

"Ah, man," Adrian sighed. Jacob and his three large and burly friends were shaking Kenny down for his lunch money again. Kenny was two years younger then them, not to mention rather short. He was in other words, the ideal bully magnet. "Hold my backpack for a moment, okay?"

"Adrian, wait…" But he had already shoved his backpack at her and was dashing at the three bullies.

--

"Agh!" Adrian groaned as he rubbed his bruised head. He was sitting at his usual place in the school cafeteria. Mandy was sitting next to him; giving him the look that she gave him every time he did something that she thought was stupid.

"You really shouldn't do stuff like that," Kenny said, sitting across down from them. "They just wanted some money."

"They were stealing from you," Adrian said loudly.

"And they still got the money, even after you rammed your face into their fists a couple of times," Mandy remarked.

Adrian shrugged and scooted away from the two of them. Mandy scoffed and rolled her eyes at his behavior.

"I thought you wouldn't pick a fight you couldn't win."

"Huh?" Adrian glanced around and then looked down at his backpack to find that the dragon had pulled the zipper open enough for it to stick its head out. "That was different from earlier. There was a point to that."

"Uh-huh," the dragon nodded.

"Really, there was," Adrian glanced around, afraid that someone might overhear him talking to his backpack.

"Yeah, I know," the dragon said.

Adrian frowned. "What was the point to you fighting that thing before?"

He didn't hear the dragon's answer as at that moment, the wall behind him exploded. A small chunk of drywall hit him in the head. It hurt even more the Jacob's fist did.

Adrian rolled under the table and glanced around. A pair of black armored legs dropped into view. Adrian gasped as the table was picked up and thrown away and he found the knight standing over him.

"Run for it!" he heard Mandy scream over the noise of every other student in the room screaming.

Adrian leapt to his feet, but before he could take another step, the knight had wrapped his arm around Adrian's neck and pulled him back, cutting off his oxygen.

He could make the dragon out at the corner of his vision, trying to get the opening in the backpack wide enough for its entire body to fit through.

Mandy ran at the knight with her tray and whacked it into his head. The knight growled and used his free arm to gently shove her. The gentle shove sent her flying through the air.

Adrian slammed his elbow into the knight's mid-section, but it didn't seem to have any effect. He grabbed the knight's arm with both hands and pulled, but it didn't budge either. He felt himself slipping out of consciousness. He wandered if he would meet his parents in heaven.

Then he felt something wrap around his waist and a sudden surge of energy as well as an increase in temperature. He opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by flames. The knight was screaming in pain from the heat. Adrian didn't know why, the flames felt quite comfortable to him. The flames were sucked towards him, covering his body and changing into a suit of some sort. His face was covered last, the flames forming into a helmet. The knight screamed even louder. Adrian's new armor was red hot to the touch. He reached up and grabbed the knight's arm pulling it away from his neck. The knight growled in rage and pain. Adrian let go of the knight's arm and slammed his elbow into him. This time the blow sent him stumbling back several feet.

Adrian glanced over at Mandy to see that she was still conscious and staring at him, wide-eyed.

He glanced down at himself. His feet were covered by red boots each with a design similar to scales on them and wings on the side. The toes of the boots were gold with claw designs on them. His gloves were also red and covered with scale and wing designs. The backs of his hands had gold armor shaped like a dragon's head. His fingers were covered with gold armor and the tips of his fingers were designed to look like claws. The armor on his chest followed the same designed, except that golden armor plats made to look like wings covered his shoulder and there was a red dragon head in the center of it. The eyes of the dragon were dark blue and appeared to be made of crystal of some kind. Whatever wasn't covered by armor was covered by a black suit.

His helmet was red like the rest of his armor. Two horns swept back from it, with a third horn in the center, but this horn was also a tail that was connected to the front of the mask. The lenses of the helmet were shaped like dragon wings and were a dark blue color. His mouth guard was shaped like a dragon's head.

"Hey, stop daydreaming, idiot."

Adrian glanced down at the belt wrapped around his waist. The buckle was shaped like a dragon head on its side. On both sides were two large armored pieces, the left resembled the front part of a dragon and the tail was holstered behind it. Oh the right was the larger piece and the back part of the dragon. The wings were on the back.

"Is that you?"

"Of course, it's me!" the dragon's head buckle replied angrily.

The black knight had meanwhile recovered and threw a punch at the back of Adrian's head. Adrian tilted his head to the side and the blow missed. The knight grunted in surprise and then Adrian spun around and delivered a kick to the creature's ribs, sending it flying through the air and out of the building the same way that it had enter, through the wall.

Adrian glanced back at Mandy to see that she had gotten up and ran for the exit. He looked back at the hole in the wall and stepped through it. The knight was waiting outside.

They were a few feet away from the school playground. Adrian was glad to see that it was empty. They were in the school's backyard. There were a few trees planted there, but it wasn't much.

The knight charged at him and threw a punch as soon as he was in range. Adrian caught his wrist before the blow connected. Adrian punched him twice with his free hand and then let go of his wrist, so he could hit the knight with both fists. He ended his flurry of punches with a kick that sent the knight skidding back several feet.

"Finish him!" Adrian's belt shouted. "Flip the armored segment on the left side of the belt down."

"You know, I don't find it strange talking to a dragon," Adrian said as he rotated the segment down. "But I do find it strange to be talking to a belt."

"You'll get used to it; pull the legs on that side up."

Adrian grabbed the legs and pulled them up. There was loud click and a gold dragon head was thrust out of the bottom of the piece of armor.

"Flare up!"

The golden dragon head opened its mouth and spat out a stream of fire which traveled down Adrian's leg and to his foot. The flames streamed up and surrounded his whole body.

The knight had meanwhile stood back up. Adrian leapt at the monster and raised his foot, the flames streaming behind it like some kind of wave. The knight reached for his sword and unsheathed it, swinging it up as Adrian fell toward him. A yellow flaming dragon head surrounded Adrian's foot and it connected with his foe's chest. Then there was a massive explosion…


	2. Episode 2: To Slay a Knight

Episode 2

To Slay a Knight

_"Finish him!" Adrian's belt shouted. "Flip the armored segment on the left side of the belt down."_

_"You know, I don't find it strange talking to a dragon," Adrian said as he rotated the segment down. "But I do find it strange to be talking to a belt."_

_"You'll get used to it; pull the legs on that side up."_

_Adrian grabbed the legs and pulled them up. There was loud click and a gold dragon head was thrust out of the bottom of the piece of armor._

_"Flare up!"_

_The golden dragon head opened its mouth and spat out a stream of fire which traveled down Adrian's leg and to his foot. The flames streamed up and surrounded his whole body._

_The knight had meanwhile stood back up. Adrian leapt at the monster and raised his foot, the flames streaming behind it like some kind of wave. The knight reached for his sword and unsheathed it, swinging it up as Adrian fell toward him. A yellow flaming dragon head surrounded Adrian's foot and it connected with his foe's chest. Then there was a massive explosion…_

The knight roared as it was thrown through the air and landed several feet away. He rolled onto his side and tried to push himself up, but he just collapsed.

Adrian stepped over the small patches of flame that his attack had caused and stood over the knight.

"Why'd you hold back?" the dragon growled angrily.

"Well, I didn't want to kill him," Adrian said, glancing down at the belt buckle.

"Idiot! If it survives, he'll just come at us again!"

"The police or someone can imprison him," Adrian glanced up. "Uh-oh."

The spot that the knight had been lying in was empty. Adrian glanced around, but the knight was gone. He ran over to the trees, but it wasn't hiding behind any of them.

The belt unbuckled itself and fell to the ground. Adrian's suit dissolved in a burst of flames, while the belt retracted. The wings on the back rotated sideways and the two body sections of the dragon attached there. The buckle extended out into the dragons neck before reattaching to the body. Once it had reformed, the dragon promptly spat a fireball at Adrian's foot.

Adrian yelped in pain and slid his foot out of the sneaker. He stomped on the shoe with his other covered foot until the fire was out. He picked the sneaker back up and placed his hand inside of it, sticking a finger out of the hole that had been burnt in the top of it.

"Will you please stop doing that?" Adrian shouted before sliding his shoe back on.

"You let it get away!" the dragon growled, pacing on the ground on all fours.

Adrian huffed and turned back towards the school. He quickly walked away from the dragon, looking over his shoulder to see that it was following him. He looked away and increased his speed, but he heard the dragon leap into the air and beat its wings to keep up. Adrian ignored him and climbed back through the hole in cafeteria wall.

He was relieved to see that it was empty. Everyone had gotten out okay.

The dragon landed on Adrian's shoulder and he promptly pushed it off. It grunted as it hit the floor.

"Stop following me," Adrian said, grabbing his backpack out of the wreckage.

The dragon growled, rolled onto its feet, and flew out of the hole in the wall. With that taken care of, Adrian went to find the rest of his classmates.

--

The knight growled and dropped out of the tree branch. He collapsed to his knees when he hit the ground, still weak.

He growled as the purple light surrounded him and he metamorphosed back into human form. He quickly stumbled away from the school and back to where he had left his motorcycle.

--

When Adrian stepped out of the school's front entrance, he found everyone standing across the street, the kids watching the school as though they expected it to suddenly exploded, or talking to the person standing next to them.

Emergency vehicles covered the street, SWAT vans, a fire truck, and three ambulances. Thankfully, the ambulances didn't seem to be needed, the worst that had happened were a few bruises from flying debris.

The SWAT team quickly swarmed around Adrian and escorted him over to the ambulances, where the medics proceeded to ask him if he was okay and then check him over even after he said that he was.

After that they let him go, he pushed through the crowd of students looking for Mandy. He spotted her standing at the back of the crowd, her arms wrapped around herself.

Adrian walked to her and she spotted him out of the corner of her eye and turned to hug him tightly.

"Ah! Need air!" Adrian gasped.

"Oh, sorry," she said, letting go of him. "So what was that?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Adrian sighed. "Can we just get out of here?"

"Well, I pretty much think that school is out now," Mandy shrugged.

Adrian sighed and started down the sidewalk, Mandy following at his side.

After they were far enough away from the crowd, Mandy asked. "So what do you know?"

Adrian looked over at her. "Well, as I was running through the park I heard a noise, so I stopped like an idiot and this pint-sized dragon came flying out of the bushes!"

"Who are you calling pint-sized?!" an angry voice demanded.

"Oh, no," Adrian looked up and watched as the dragon glided down and landed in front of them.

Mandy stared down at the dragon for a few seconds, and then she let out an excited shout. "It's so cute."

"What the he- ack!" the dragon gasped as Mandy leaned down and pulled it into a hug.

Adrian sighed and glanced around to make sure nobody was watching. Fortunately, the trees hide them from the crowd of students and anyone that was in the area had joined the crowd in staring at the school.

He grabbed Mandy's arm and pulled her off into the bushes. Once there, the dragon managed to wriggle out of her clutches and shot a dirty look at her.

"Sorry," Mandy said. "It's just that you're the first dragon I've ever met."

"Lucky me," the dragon growled, brushing himself off.

"Why are you following me?" Adrian asked the dragon.

"Because I need your help fighting that mage," the dragon replied.

"Mage?" Adrian repeated. "It looked like a knight to me."

"Well, it's a knight mage," the dragon responded.

"Don't you mean nutmeg?" Mandy asked.

"No!" the dragon snapped, spitting a few sparks as he did. "A mage is a human with magical powers that has corrupted themselves by abusing it."

"And you want to kill them?" Adrian asked.

"Of course!" the dragon said. "They're evil."

"They can't all be evil," Adrian said.

"Yeah," Mandy agreed. "No one is all evil."

"Well, they are."

"I think you're prejudiced," Adrian said.

"I have a right to be," the dragon growled. "That knight jerk slaughtered my whole village with the support of all the other mages, now he's hunting me down so he can finish the job!"

"Oh," Adrian and Mandy glanced at each other. Adrian looked back at the dragon and saw him wiping something out of his eyes.

"Come on," Mandy said. "Let's take him back to your house and get him something to eat. Your aunt and uncle are still at work, right?"

"Yeah…" Adrian replied. "He just better not burn anything down!"

"Don't be so insensitive," Mandy admonished him and then knelt down and picked up the dragon, who was now sobbing quietly.

--

Adrian checked to make sure that both his aunt and uncle's car were gone before he showed Mandy and the dragon into the house.

He headed straight for his room and slipped out of his burnt sneakers and into another pair which were slightly too small for him. He wondered how he would explain what had happened to his brand new shoes.

When he got back downstairs, he found the dragon drinking milk out of a bowl on the floor. Mandy was leaning against the refrigerator watching it. His aunt's brown and white tabby was glaring at the dragon from a safe distance.

"Full yet?" Adrian asked, walking into the kitchen.

"No, I'm really hungry," the dragon replied.

Adrian sighed. "So where was your village?"

"We moved around a lot," the dragon replied. "We were in a cave in the mountains around here."

"Why did you move around so much?" Mandy asked.

"The mages, they hate anything that has power equal to theirs," the dragon replied. "There weren't a lot of us, so we didn't put up much of a fight."

"What's your name?" Adrian asked.

"Methalgresoth," the dragon replied.

"Metholgreasuth?" Adrian repeated.

"How about if we just call you Meth?" Mandy asked.

"That's fine," Meth replied.

--

The knight growled as he stepped off of his motorcycle and walked into the pub. He sat at the bar and ordered a beer. The alcohol really didn't do much to him, but he liked the taste.

He drank his beer as he recollected his battle with that child. He had had no idea that the dragons could do anything like that. Now he had lost them and it could take him months before he found the dragon's trail again.

He frowned. Unless the dragon needed that particular human to transform. In which case it would try to stick around. His frown curled up into a smirk.

The bartender paused as he saw the smirk and then leapt back as the knight's eyes glowed red.

--

Adrian sat bolt up right. He jumped up and stared out of the kitchen window.

"What is it?" Mandy asked looking over his shoulder.

A column of smoke was rising into the air. Adrian spun and ran out of the house, Meth leapt into the air and flapped after him. Outside, he could hear the roar of sirens.

"It's that knight guy," Adrian said.

"Yeah," Meth said. "Now, do you believe me that they're evil?"

"Well, I believe that one is," Adrian replied.

"That'll have to do for now," the dragon said and landed on Adrian's shoulder. Adrian reached up and grabbed the base of Meth's neck. He pulled and that part came loose, a length of belt following it and then the rest of the dragon's body which split in half, a length of belt between the two body parts. He slung the belt around his waist and then clipped it together.

Meth's neck was still extended and he turned to look at a motorcycle resting against the wall of the garage with a tarp over it. "Whose bike is that?"

"My uncle's," Adrian replied. "It broke down and he hasn't taken the time to repair it."

Meth opened his mouth and launched a spray of fire at the bike. The tarp burned away and the bike turned of its own will and drove over to rest in front of Adrian. As the fire continued to blaze, the bike slowly transformed. It changed from black to red with gold trimmings. The front changed into the shape of a dragon head, the horns extending out into handlebars. Wings were wrapped around the body of the bike and the back extended out into a tail.

Adrian leapt back in surprise. "Whoa!"

"Well? Let's go!" the dragon growled.

"Oh, yeah!" Adrian said. He pushed Meth's head down to lie next to the belt and then to the side, the neck folding up, and Meth's head forming the belt buckle. "Transform!"

The air was still and silent.

"Nothing happened," Mandy pointed out.

"You know 'transform' isn't really that cool," Meth mused. "Why not say 'henshin'?"

"Fine, henshin then!" Adrian said.

He pushed the horns on the buckle together and the dragon's mouth open, releasing a cloud of flames as it did. The flames swirled around Adrian forming into the shape of dragon wings while a long neck of flames stretched up, the head at the end roared. Adrian pushed a button above the buckle and the mouth snapped closed and the horns returned to their original position. The wings moved toward Adrian forming into the armor as it came into contact with his skin; the dragon's head moved down and covered his face changing into the helmet. The armor glowed red hot for several seconds before cooling.

"Wow," Mandy whispered.

Adrian grabbed the bike's handlebars and swung his leg over it. He was glad that his uncle had taught him how to ride.

"Be careful!" Mandy shouted as he pulled the bike out of the garage and onto the road. He accelerated and was gone.

--

The knight laughed as he glanced around the street. The pub was now in flames and belching plenty of smoke into the air. Police cars surrounded him, the police themselves crouching behind the vehicles with their guns trained on him.

"Lay down on the ground with your hands over your head!" someone shouted into a megaphone.

His laughter grew louder at that. He threw his head back and laughed crazily, his eyes glowing red again. Light blue flames gathered around him and they shot out in a wave, blasting the windows of the police cars in and flinging the humans through the air, their bodies simultaneously catching fire.

He glanced around, happy to see that none of the irritating humans were standing. He heard the sound of a motorcycle approaching and looked up to see Adrian riding toward him. He stopped the bike and got off, glancing at the scene of destruction that the knight had caused.

Adrian glanced up at the knight; his hands were balled into fists at his side. "You're going down."

"I think not," he replied, glancing down. He looked back up and thrust his arm out, a light blue fireball shot out of his palm and slammed into Adrian's chest armor. A shower of sparks flew from where he was hit.

"Ha! I thought you would know better then to use fire against a fire dragon," Meth laughed.

"You can't blame me for trying," he shrugged and then melted into his knight form. "What is your name human? I would like to know what I should carve on your tombstone."

"I'm kamen rider Ryu," Adrian answered.

"Ryu?" Meth repeated.

"You're the one that wanted to use a Japanese word for our transformation," Adrian replied.

"Enough talk," the knight growled and then charged at Ryu.

The knight threw a punch at him, but Ryu sidestepped it. He threw a kick at the knight's side and was pleased to see it connect. He punched the knight's head and it spun around and stepped away.

Ryu leapt forward and threw a kick at the knight's face. However, the knight grabbed his ankle. The knight swung him around and let go, sending him flying through the air. He slammed into the door of a police car.

The mage slowly walked toward Ryu, who rolled back onto his feet. Adrian stepped forward and threw two punches at the knight both of which were dodged. Adrian ducked under his punch and at the same time, punched the knight's chest. He quickly stood back up, driving his fist into the knight's armored chin as he did. Ryu threw two more punches and then spun around and leapt up, raising his leg and kicking the knight in the head.

Stumbling back from the blow, the knight glared up at the kamen rider. He stood back up and drew his sword. He charged at Ryu with surprising speed and slashed the sword across his chest. Sparks flew from the hit and Adrian stumbled back, narrowly avoiding another slash. He dropped onto his back to avoid the next slash and slammed his feet into the knight's chest while he was down there.

"What are you doing?" Meth demanded. "Go get him!"

Adrian rolled out of the way as the knight slammed his sword down on where he had been lying. "But he's got a sword!"

"Well, so do we!"

Ryu stood back up and stepped away from the knight. He reached down and pulled Meth's tail from the left side of the belt; he reached around and grabbed the wings from the back of the belt. He stacked the tail on top of the wings.

Adrian regarded the weapon for a moment. The tail had formed the blade, while the wings were the hilt and handle. It was rather short and looked more like a dagger then a sword.

"Listen," Meth said, as Adrian ducked another sword slash. "That sword may be bigger, but it's also clumsy to swing and heavy. Dodge the sword and go for the idiot."

"Easier said then done," Ryu replied as he blocked a slash with his dagger, the force of the blow almost knocked the dagger out of his hand. He ducked the next slash and ran forward under it, slashing the knight's side as he did.

The knight growled and spun to deliver another slash, which Ryu ducked under. Ryu slashed repeatedly at the knight's chest. He thrust the blade at the knight and sent him flying back.

Adrian flipped the segment of armor on the left side of his belt up and pushed down on the legs there. The gold dragon head was pushed out and its mouth opened.

"Flare up!"

A fireball shot out of the dragon's mouth and circled around Adrian several times before settling on the blade of the dagger. The blade caught fire and a tongue of flames extended from it adding slightly to its length.

The two combatants charged at each other, weapons raised. They slashed at each other, the two weapons connected. The knight's sword was knocked away by the flaming blade and Ryu quickly slashed the blade vertically across the knight's chest. The knight howled in pain as sparks flew from him. Ryu swung the sword back across his chest again.

Even more sparks flew from the knight's chest and he stumbled back. He lowered his sword and turned and ran toward the still smoking bar.

Adrian growled as he disappeared into the smoke cloud. Seconds later, an engine roared and the knight reappeared, riding a black motorcycle. Adrian jumped out of the way of the bike, but was still hit by a slash from the knight's sword. He collapsed, more stunned, then wounded by the blow.

"Come on, he's getting away!" Meth growled.

Ryu stood up and walked over to his bike. He swung his leg over it and sat down. He split his dagger back into its two components and attached them to his belt. He griped the handlebars and accelerated his bike, zooming after the fleeing knight.

The knight glanced back at him and then turned around. He raised his sword as he approached Ryu. The sword glowed purple and extended out into a black lance. He thrust the lance forward and Adrian barely managed to swerve out of the way and avoid being impaled.

They rode several feet away from each other and then stopped. Adrian glanced back at the knight and then gunned his bike's engine, spinning it around to face him. The knight also spun his bike around.

The two charged at each other again. The knight lowered his lance, while Ryu reached down and flipped the armor on his belt back to facing forward. He pulled the legs backwards and the dragon head was thrust out again. A fireball flew out of the dragon's mouth and circled around the front of Ryu's bike.

"Flare up!"

The mouth of the dragon head on the front of the bike opened and the fireball floated into it, before a massive stream of fire was shot out of the bike's mouth. The stream of fire slammed into the knight's bike, causing him to raise his lance, to his credit, he didn't panic and crash, but he didn't steer out of the way in time to avoid what happened next.

The fire pulled back onto Ryu's bike and took the shape of a dragon. Red flames shot out of the motorcycle's mufflers and it shot forward even faster, slamming into the knight.

There was a massive purple explosion of fire as the knight and his bike were obliterated.


	3. Episode 3: The Fortuneteller

Disclaimer: I don't own a single iota of any actual Kamen Rider series. I just own the characters and plots of this fanfic.

Episode 3

The Fortuneteller

_"Come on, he's getting away!" Meth growled._

_Ryu stood up and walked over to his bike. He swung his leg over it and sat down. He split his dagger back into its two components and attached them to his belt. He griped the handlebars and accelerated his bike, zooming after the fleeing knight._

_The knight glanced back at him and then turned around. He raised his sword as he approached Ryu. The sword glowed purple and extended out into a black lance. He thrust the lance forward and Adrian barely managed to swerve out of the way and avoid being impaled._

_They rode several feet away from each other and then stopped. Adrian glanced back at the knight and then gunned his bike's engine, spinning it around to face him. The knight also spun his bike around._

_The two charged at each other again. The knight lowered his lance, while Ryu reached down and flipped the armor on his belt back to facing forward. He pulled the legs backwards and the dragon head was thrust out again. A fireball flew out of the dragon's mouth and circled around the front of Ryu's bike._

_"Flare up!"_

_The mouth of the dragon head on the front of the bike opened and the fireball floated into it, before a massive stream of fire was shot out of the bike's mouth. The stream of fire slammed into the knight's bike, causing him to raise his lance, to his credit, he didn't panic and crash, but he didn't steer out of the way in time to avoid what happened next._

_The fire pulled back onto Ryu's bike and took the shape of a dragon. Red flames shot out of the motorcycle's mufflers and it shot forward even faster, slamming into the knight._

_There was a massive purple explosion of fire as the knight and his bike were obliterated._

Adrian stopped his bike and glanced back at the purple flames and bits of coal-like debris that covered the ground. He breathed a sigh of relief.

He looked up at the sound of approaching sirens and turned his bike back toward home.

"Don't want to stick around and suck up the glory?" Meth asked.

"No," Adrian replied.

"Is something wrong?"

Adrian frowned under his helmet. "Yes, if I had listened to you earlier and finished him off, then those police men wouldn't have been killed."

"Well, now you know what to believe," Meth said his tone somewhere between smug and consoling.

"They can't all be evil," Adrian replied.

Meth didn't reply and they didn't say anything more until they got back to Adrian's house and had parked in the driveway.

The Ryu suit vanished in a cloud of flames as Adrian unclipped his belt. It immediately changed back into dragon form and Meth floated gently to the ground as Adrian released him.

"My uncle is going to flip when he sees what you did to his bike," Adrian said, stepping off of the heavily modified bike.

Adrian had barely finished speaking when flames surrounded the bike. The air around it warped from the heat as the bike melted back into its original shaped. Adrian pushed the bike back to where it had been and covered it with the tarp.

He turned toward the house and pushed the door open. He heard the noise of the TV and headed into the living room to find Mandy sitting on the coach, watching the news.

"Hey," she greeted. "Their news copter caught the end of your battle with that knight thing."

"It was a mage," Meth reminded. "Weren't you paying attention?"

"Why did it start that fire?" Adrian asked rubbing a bruise.

"It probably wanted to lure us there," Meth said, flapping his wings and landing on the back of the coach. "Or it could have just been doing it for fun."

"What?" Mandy and Adrian asked.

"That's the way they are," Meth explained. "They use their abilities to cause chaos."

--

Elsewhere, a woman was walking home, a bag of groceries under her arm. The streets were practically deserted. It was really a pleasant neighborhood though; her chances of being mugged weren't very great.

She looked up at the sound of footsteps and smiled at the young man approaching her. "Hello-,"

She paused as she saw his face. His smile which had always been warm now seemed somehow sadistic.

As she watched, his eyes turned red and his canines grew into pointed fangs as his teeth turned black. She tossed her groceries down and turned to run, but something wrapped around her neck. Whatever was around her neck was covered in sharp thorns, she gasped in pain as they stabbed into her skin. She reached up and tried to pull away whatever was wrapped around her neck, but it was wrapped tightly and the thorns just cut into her fingers. She lowered her arms as a wave of exhaustion hit her. She dropped to her knees. Her skin started to wrinkle and her hair faded to grey. She dropped over completely and the object around her neck retracted.

The mage laughed. The sound of his voice was similar to a hellish screech. His body was covered in red and black skin. His chest was red and two pieces of armor made to resemble human skulls covered his shoulders. His forearms were also red and ended in black claws. He wore a light brown loin cloth with a belt of the same color. The belt buckle was a silver skull. His face was vaguely human, but colored a mixture of red and black that resembled tribal paint. His nose was two slits and his eyes were yellow. Two bat-like wings extended from the side of his head were a human's ears would be. He carried a black whip, the entire length of which was covered in sharp red thorns.

He turned around and walked off, a red glow surrounding him as he morphed back into human form.

--

Adrian and Mandy had decided to leave the house. They didn't want to spend the day inside, especially after Meth had spat several fireballs at the cat because the feline had liked Meth stealing its food.

Meth didn't like being stuffed back into Adrian's backpack, but he consented since it would be better to get a view of the streets at ground level, rather then just from the air.

They decided to head for Mandy's parents' house. It was a bit of a walk and things were farther complicated as Meth asked a stream of questions, not knowing very much about humans.

A lot of people stared at Adrian as he answered the disembodied voice that came from his backpack. Mandy explained to a few of the more curious ones that it was just a ventriloquist act.

Adrian finally told Meth to be quiet as they reached their destination. Mandy's parents owned a small diner. It was the whole downstairs of the house, the family lived upstairs. They were usually fairly busy and had quite a few regulars. Adrian liked to hang around there when he got bored.

Both of Mandy's parents were standing behind the counter as well as an elderly woman that Adrian didn't recognize, but whose features seemed to suggest that she was related to Mandy.

"Hey, mom and dad! Hello, grandma!" Mandy greeted.

Adrian elbowed his backpack as Meth shifted around inside of it. "Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Klinger."

"You're home early," Mrs. Klinger noted.

"They let us out early," Mandy replied sitting on a stool at the counter. Adrian sat down next to her. "Grandma, this is Adrian. He's a friend of mine."

The aged woman slammed a playing card down on the counter. A man in a business suit was sitting on the opposite side of the counter. He was intently watching the cards which were arranged in a circle on the countertop.

"Grandma?" Mandy asked.

"Sshhh!" she hissed and then drew the last card and set it down.

"So?" the man in the suit asked.

"If you continue as you are, you will get your promotion," she replied disinterestedly.

"Yes, I knew it!" the man exclaimed jumping up. He sat a five dollar bill down on the counter. "Thanks."

He turned and left. Mandy's grandmother pocketed the five dollars and picked up the playing cards, shuffling them back together. She finally looked up at Adrian. He jumped at bit from the intensity of her glare. She snorted. "Kind of scrawny, isn't he?"

Adrian heard Meth chuckling from his backpack, so he took it off, set it on the counter and leaned his elbows on it. He smiled as he heard Meth growl angrily.

A woman stepped up and sat in front of Grandma. "So, does that superstitious hooey of yours really work?"

"Do not mock the world of the occult," the fortuneteller warned.

"How about this? If you predict that something happens today and if it does, then tomorrow, I'll pay you twice your usual fee."

"Fine," she sneered. "But for you, the usual fee is ten dollars."

"Fine," the other woman sneered.

Grandma snapped the first card off of the deck and slammed it down on the table more forcefully then before. She paused and then slowly and quickly drew and set down the rest of the cards. "I want my fee now."

What?!" the woman asked outraged.

"You will die less then an hour after you leave the store," she replied. "Therefore I want my twenty bucks now."

"You-," the woman growled, grabbed her purse and fumed out of the door.

Grandma sighed and began picking the cards back up. "Like she will need the money where she is going anyway…"

"Hey, could you tell my future with those cards?" Adrian asked.

"I don't tell the fortunes of scrawny people," she huffed and walked away.

"Is she visiting?" Adrian asked Mandy frowning.

"No," Mandy replied. "She was going to be put into a home, but mom couldn't stand that idea and instead asked her to move in with us… Dad wasn't too happy about the idea though."

"Hey, Mandy."

Mandy growled. "Hello, Michael."

Adrian turned to find Michael sitting at the table across from the stools of the counter. He was smiling at Mandy. The glare from his teeth almost blinded Adrian. His hair was a light blonde color and he wore a white sweater. All that was missing was a red apricot and he could have passed for Fred from Scooby-Doo.

"So you got out of school early today?" he asked.

"It would appear so," Mandy replied.

Michael's smile momentarily disappeared, replaced by a look of frustration, but then it was back in place. "So what do you plan to do?"

"Ignore you," Mandy replied.

Michael sighed and turned back to his meal.

"Moron," Mandy muttered. "He comes here everyday to hit on me. He spends all afternoon. Doesn't he have anything better to do?"

"He doesn't seem that bad," Adrian shrugged.

Mandy rolled her eyes and muttered. "Boys!"

Her grandmother had walked back over and glanced over at Mandy. "You shouldn't take such an attitude. He isn't very scrawny."

She glared at Adrian. He blinked and glanced over at Mandy, but she was too busy glaring at the counter.

"If only my daughter had taken my advice," she sighed.

Mandy's dad glanced over at that and extended his hand at Grandma, extending his thumb and pointer finger. He jerked his hand as though a shot had been fired from it and Adrian saw his lips whisper the word "bam".

"Come on," Mandy said, poking Adrian's arm. "Let's go."

They got up and left. Adrian glanced back and saw Michael leave soon after them.

"Told you," Mandy muttered.

"I don't like that guy," Meth said, wiggling out of the backpack and flapping up to land on Adrian's shoulder. "He was a weird smell. Like a swimming pool with too much bleach in it."

Adrian halted and glanced back the way they had come.

"What is it?" Meth asked.

"Come on," Adrian said, turning and running back.

--

The mage waited as his prey walked toward him. He had followed her for a while and knew that she stored her car in this parking garage. He even knew which spot she preferred to park in and her license plat number.

He was in human form, leaning against a support pillar. Aside from him, there was no one else. He smirked as he saw her step out of the elevator. He pushed himself up and walked toward her.

She smiled reflexively when she saw him, but her smile dropped as she saw his grin. A red glow surrounded him and he morphed into his mage form. She screamed and turned to run, but he was on her in seconds.

He leapt and flipped over her head. He spun around as soon as he landed and wrapped an arm around her neck. He screeched loudly and she screamed again. Too bad, that no one was around to hear her.

Adrian gasped as he reached the top of the steps and saw the mage. The mage sank his claws into woman's neck and her skin started wrinkling and her hair turned grey. He recognized her as the woman from the diner.

Meth leapt off Adrian's shoulder, falling toward the ground. Adrian grabbed Meth's neck as he fell and the dragon unfurled into the Ryu belt. He swung the belt around his waist and clipped it together. He pushed the neck into the buckle and pressed the horns together, opening the buckle's mouth. A cloud of flames spewed out of the mouth and attached to Adrian's back forming into dragon wings, while a neck stretched up above him, a dragon head on the end. The head let out a roar, attracting the mage's attention. He turned and tossed the dead woman to the ground.

"Henshin!"

He pressed the button on the top of the belt and the mouth snapped closed. The wings folded in front of Adrian and he walked forward, the flames enveloping him and forming into armor as he did. The dragon head covered his face and changed into his helmet.

"Interesting," the mage said in his screech-like voice.

"What did you do to that woman?" Meth demanded.

"I just drained her life force," the mage replied sounding bored. "It wasn't as tasty as I thought it would be."

The mage charged at the kamen rider, throwing a punch at him. Ryu ducked under it and punched the mage's side. He stood up and kicked the mage's back. The mage was sent stumbling into the side of a car.

He pushed himself back up and pulled his whip out of his belt. He swung it and hit Ryu's chest, releasing a hail of sparks. He swung the whip rapidly several more times, knocking Adrian off his feet and sending him rolling backwards.

Ryu pushed himself back up and stepped back as the mage advanced, being careful to stay out of range of the whip. He reached down and grabbed the tail and wings off of his belt. He attached the tail to the handle, facing forward this time and folded the wings forward to surround it. He raised the weapon and pulled the trigger. Several small fireballs shot from the end of the tail and slammed into the mage's chest, stopping his advance and causing him to stumble back.

Adrian squeezed the trigger again and shot several more fireballs, until the mage dropped over. Ryu raised the gun and flipped the segment of armor on the left side of the belt up. He pushed the legs down and the golden dragon head extended.

"Flare up!"

A fireball shot out of the head's open mouth and circled around Ryu's gun hand before settling at the end of the gun. Ryu lowered the gun and pulled the trigger; a large fireball shot out and streaked toward the mage.

The demon growled and rolled to the side, the fireball hit the macadam missing the monster completely. He leapt forward and landed next to Ryu. He slammed his fist into Ryu's stomach. He stepped back while Ryu was still incapacitated and threw a punch into his face.

Sparks flew as the blow connected and Ryu was sent flying through the air. The mage swung his whip rapidly while Ryu was helpless in midair and hit him several times. On the last swing of the wipe, the entire length of it glowed red and the blow was even more powerful, catapulting Ryu even farther into the air. He flew out of the parking garage and down a whole floor before crashing onto the hood of someone's parked car.

Adrian groaned and rolled off the car's hood. Meth unbuckled himself and resumed his dragon form, Ryu's armor dissolving into flame as he did.

Meth glared up at the mage as it peered over the edge and chuckled before turning and disappearing. He glanced back at Adrian. "Are you okay?"

Adrian tried to push himself up, but he just collapsed again and faded into unconsciousness.


	4. Episode 4: Burning Rage

Disclaimer: I don't own Kamen Rider, but I do own Kamen Rider Ryu… Kind of confusing, isn't it?

Episode 4

Burning Rage

_"Flare up!"_

_A fireball shot out of the head's open mouth and circled around Ryu's gun hand before settling at the end of the gun. Ryu lowered the gun and pulled the trigger; a large fireball shot out and streaked toward the mage. _

_The demon growled and rolled to the side, the fireball hit the macadam missing the monster completely. He leapt forward and landed next to Ryu. He slammed his fist into Ryu's stomach. He stepped back while Ryu was still incapacitated and threw a punch into his face. _

_Sparks flew as the blow connected and Ryu was sent flying through the air. The mage swung his whip rapidly while Ryu was helpless in midair and hit him several times. On the last swing of the whip, the entire length of it glowed red and the blow was even more powerful, catapulting Ryu even farther into the air. He flew out of the parking garage and down a whole floor before crashing onto the hood of someone's parked car. _

_Adrian groaned and rolled off the car's hood. Meth unbuckled himself and resumed his dragon form, Ryu's armor dissolving into flame as he did. _

_Meth glared up at the mage as it peered over the edge and chuckled before turning and disappearing. He glanced back at Adrian. "Are you okay?"_

_Adrian tried to push himself up, but he just collapsed again and faded into unconsciousness. _

--

Adrian groaned as he returned to consciousness. He glanced around, noticing that he was in an alleyway, lying against the wall of a building. Meth was nowhere to be found.

He glanced to his right and jumped as he found himself face to face with someone. He sighed as he recognized Michael from the diner. "What are you doing here?"

"Saving you from that monster, of course," he replied. "That was quite a fall you had."

"Oh, crap!" Adrian exclaimed. "I'm a superhero for one day and someone already knows my secret identity!"

"Hey, relax," Michael said, sitting down next to him and leaning against the wall. "I'm not going to tell anyone, as long as you do me a favor."

"What's the favor?"

"I want you to convince Mandy to go on a date with me," Michael said.

"What?" Adrian asked. "Don't ask for the impossible."

He glanced over at Michael and saw that he frowning. He turned and gave Adrian a pleading look. "Come on, it's just one date, in exchange for me keeping your secret identity secret."

"I'll try," Adrian said, standing up and wincing in pain.

"You sure you don't need to go to a hospital?" Michael asked.

"I'll be fine," Adrian said, turning and walking away.

He walked several blocks before he stopped and leaned against a building's wall. He looked up and spotted Meth circling above him. Adrian glanced around and then stepped into another alleyway. A few seconds later, Meth dropped down into the alley, landing on top of a trash can.

"That could have gone better," Meth said.

"We'll get him next time," Adrian said.

Meth reached up with his hind leg and scratched the area beneath his horn. "Well, we might have to prepare ourselves. Who taught you how to fight?"

"My aunt," Adrian replied. "She was a self-defense teacher."

"Well, you need to practice more," Meth said, before licking his front paw thoughtfully.

"Are you saying I don't know how to fight?" Adrian asked with a bit of agitation.

"No, but you need to know more about how Ryu's powers work," Meth said, rubbing his wet paw against his head. "Do you know someplace where we can practice without being disturbed?"

"Yeah, but later," Adrian said, looking at his watch. "My aunt and uncle will be home soon and its getting late anyway."

"Well, then we'll do it tomorrow," Meth said, leaping into the air and flying in the direction of Adrian's house.

--

"Hey, you're just in time for dinner," Aunt Valerie said as Adrian pushed the door open.

"Great!" Adrian exclaimed cheerfully.

He noticed his Uncle Henry giving him an odd look. Adrian was wearing a sweat shirt that was slightly too small for him. He had had Meth fly in through his open bedroom window and get a sweatshirt, so he could hide the bruises on his arms from his aunt and uncle. Unfortunately, Meth had grabbed one that was too small and flown off, before Adrian could say anything.

The other bruises he could just pass off as something that happened at school. His fighting with the bullies wasn't something that he kept secret from his aunt and uncle. There were very few things that he kept secret from them.

"I heard that something happened over at the school," Henry said. "There was an explosion?"

"I don't know," Adrian lied, sitting down. "I wasn't actually there when it happened."

Adrian was glad that they didn't pursue the subject and started passing the food around the table. He wondered if it would have been better to tell them what had really happened, but he imagined that Aunt Valerie wouldn't approve of him going out and fighting the mages.

He hoped that it wouldn't last long. He had never heard of these creatures before and yet two had appeared in the city in one day. One that had been following Meth and the other seemingly having already been living there. He wondered how many there were. He also wondered if Meth would want him to go looking for more of them.

"Adrian?"

"Huh?!" Adrian asked, snapping out of his thoughts.

"You were spacing out," Henry informed.

"You've barely touched your food," Aunt Valerie added. Her own plate was almost empty.

"Sorry," Adrian said, swallowing a spoonful of peas. The phone rang and Adrian immediately sprang up. "I'll get it."

He pulled the phone off the hook and held it to his ear. "Hello, Adrian here."

"Oh, so you're okay?" Mandy's voice asked from the other end of the line. She sighed in relief.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Adrian said, stepping into the living room.

"Good. How's Meth?"

"He's fine, too," Adrian replied. He paused. "We kind of lost though."

"Oh," Mandy said sympathetically.

"Yeah, and someone saw me… I don't know unhenshin?" Adrian said.

"Uh-oh," she said. "Who was it?"

"That Michael guy from the diner," he inhaled and continued. "He promised not to tell anyone so long as you went on a date with him."

"What?!" Adrian held the phone at arm's length and hoped that his aunt and uncle hadn't heard the shout from the kitchen. "Can't you just kill him, or something?!"

Adrian returned the phone to his ear. "No, I can't."

Mandy sighed and then asked hopefully. "Maybe we can convince Meth to eat him?"

"We probably could, but that would be bad."

"Yeah, Meth wouldn't be able to eat him all in one day and all that meat would go to waste," Mandy said remorselessly.

"Oh, come on," Adrian sighed. "It's just one date."

"Why do you have to keep your identity secret?" Mandy asked.

"Because Aunt Valerie would want me to go to college before she would let me fight evil," Adrian replied only half-jokingly. "Come on, Mandy, it's just one date."

"Fine, but you owe me," Mandy said. "I'll tell the little jerk when he's at the diner tomorrow."

With that said, she slammed the phone down.

"Thanks," Adrian said and hung up the phone.

--

Adrian groaned as he awoke to something landing on his chest. As he opened his eyes, he noticed that it was too bright outside for it to still be morning.

"Good morning," Meth chirped. He was the one that had landed on his chest and thus woken him up. "I overheard your aunt and uncle saying that your school was closed today and to let you sleep in. How often do you humans have school?"

"Five days a week normally," Adrian replied, sitting up. Meth fluttered over to land on top of his dresser.

"That stinks," Meth said. "Dragons only have it every other day."

"You're lucky," Adrian said, sitting up and grabbing his day clothes.

"Come on, we got make sure you're ready for when that mage shows up again," Meth said.

"How'd you get in here anyway?" Adrian asked, noticing that all of his windows were closed.

"Through that small square hole in the bottom of the door," Meth said. "I think it's for letting that furry creature you keep in here come and go at will."

Adrian was dressed and downstairs eating breakfast in a few minutes. Meth was roaming the house, being closely and cautiously followed by his aunt's irate house cat.

"Could you make that fur ball stop following me?" Meth asked as he flew back into the kitchen. The cat was following beneath him and glaring up at him. "It's looking at me like it wants to sink its teeth into me."

"She probably does," Adrian shrugged.

Nevertheless, they left the house before the cat worked up the courage to attack the dragon. Adrian led the dragon to an abandoned warehouse. He entered by crawling through a large crack in the wall, while Meth dropped in through a broken skylight.

"Wow, you hang out in the nicest places," Meth said, landing on a crate.

"Hey, it'll work for what we need it for," Adrian said, gesturing at the large amount of empty space, only a few crates, or other objects lay on the floor. "Now, what did you want to teach me?"

"First I want to point out something about the flare up attacks," Meth said. "You should only use them when you're pretty sure they'll hit. It takes a bit of my energy to use them and they can't just be used carelessly."

"So I should weaken them first and then use the attacks," Adrian nodded, sitting down on a crate.

Meth nodded, flying over to him. "The shot attack is the fastest, but weakest attack; the sword attack is stronger, but not as fast and doesn't possess the same range obviously. The kick is the strongest and slowest attack."

"And probably the one that saps the most of your strength," Adrian said.

Meth nodded again. "Exactly."

Adrian glanced off at the wall, though he seemed to be seeing far beyond it. "Come on!"

He turned and crawled back out the crack in the wall. Meth flew out after him and followed as Adrian ran off.

--

The mage laughed as he watched his prey run. It had taken a while, but he finally had lured her into his trap and would be able to feed on her.

He swung his whip and it wrapped around her ankle, tripping her. He slowly pulled her back toward him, laughing at her whimpering. She grabbed hold of a lamppost, but her grip failed against the demon mage's superior strength.

Finally, she was at the mage's feet and he reached down and lifted her off the ground, wrapping his hand around her neck.

Adrian gasped as he rounded the corner and saw the mage about to feed. He reached up and Meth instantly landed in his hand, extending out into the Ryu belt. Adrian slung it around his waist and pushed the horns together. Meth's mouth opened, spewing flames which attached to Adrian's back and formed into the shape of wings. The flaming dragon's head extend up over his own and then lunged forward, biting into the demon's hand. The monster roared in pain and released his prey, who had fainted from shock. He spun to face Adrian, growling lowly.

"Henshin!" Adrian pushed the button on top of the buckle and the wings folded themselves around him, forming into the Ryu armor while the dragon's head covered his face and became his helmet.

The mage swung his whip at Ryu, but the kamen rider ducked, grabbing the components of his weapon as he did and assembling his gun. He fired at the demon, the small fireball impacting with the monster's chest, releasing sparks. He fired several more times, before the creature swung its whip again, but Adrian dodged it again and continued firing, slowly stepping forward.

Ryu pulled the gun apart and attached the dragon's tail to the top of the handle, forming the dagger. The mage's whip glowed red and shrunk, the whip becoming the blade of a rapier. Adrian paused as he saw the new weapon and the mage slashed it across his chest, sending sparks and Ryu flying through the air.

He rolled as he hit the ground and crouched, his dagger raised as the mage approached. The mage stepped forward and slashed at Ryu's head, but he rolled to the side and sliced at the mage's leg. He stood up and slashed the mage in the back. The mage spun around and punched Ryu in the face, the blow sent him stumbling back and the mage quickly slashed his rapier across his chest several times. Adrian raised the dagger in an attempt to block, but the rapier hit his hand and sent the dagger flying through the air.

The blade of the rapier glowed red and the mage slashed downward across Ryu's chest, sending a large cloud of sparks flying. Ryu stumbled back and collapsed onto one knee.

The mage lowered its weapon and stepped forward. A red glow surrounded the demon and it melted back into human form.

"Michael?!" Adrian exclaimed in surprise.

The blonde laughed a sadistic smirk on his face. "Hey, Adrian."

"Why are you attacking all of these people?" Adrian asked, slowly standing.

"Huh?" Michael blinked. "You mean, your dragon friend didn't tell you? All of us mages do something like this. We need some form of release."

"No, there has to be some logical reason for it," Adrian shouted. "No one kills for no reason!"

"Sure, they do," Michael chuckled. "But really, the reason I kill like this is because by draining their life force, I'm adding to my own. We mages do have a limited lifespan and our human forms do age, even if our true forms don't. So, I needed to find some way to keep myself alive and young. Turns out I can absorb the life force of women who fall in love with me."

"Then you were going to go after Mandy?!" Adrian demanded.

"Of course, it got boring going after the easy ones after the first thousand years," Michael's eyes turned red and his teeth turned black and grew into fangs. His voice took on a more screech-like quality. "I needed a challenge."

"You bastard!" Adrian shouted, his hands curling into fists.

Michael's smirk seemed to grow wider and he melted back into his mage form, raising his rapier.

The unarmed Ryu charged at him. Michael slashed as soon as he was within range, but Ryu leapt and flipped over top of him. He swept kicked the mage's feet out from under him when he landed and then spun to face him, kicking at Michael's sides while he was on the ground.

Michael rolled away and tried to stand, but Ryu shoved him back down and kicked him a few more times, before he rolled away again. This time Adrian leapt and raised his arm, letting gravity bring him down and slamming his elbow into his opponent's stomach. He slammed two punches into Michael's head, before the demon slashed his claws across Ryu's chest armor. Adrian rolled away before Michael could repeat the attack.

The mage stood up, panting and no longer looking as fearsome as before.

"Mess with me and you're going to get burnt," Arian said, pointing at the mage.

"Shut up!" Michael snapped, his rapier transforming back into a whip as he swung it at Ryu, who dodged it. He rolled out of the wall of another attack from the whip. He leapt over a third swing and did a flip.

The leap carried him toward Michael. Ryu drew back his fist, flames covering it and slammed it into Michael's chest as he landed. Sparks flew from the impact and Michael was sent flying through the air and into the wall of a building, the concrete cracking from the force of the impact.

The mage groaned and stumbled forward, holding a hand over his badly burnt chest. He glanced up as Ryu walked toward him. "Wai- wait…"

Adrian reached down and flipped the segment of armor on the left side of his belt down and pulled up on the legs there, thrusting out the golden dragon head.

"Flare up!"

A stream of fire shot out of the dragon's mouth and down to Ryu's foot, streaming up around it and surrounding him in flames. He glared at Michael.

"Stop! I'll leave Mandy alone, I'll leave the city. You'll never see me again!" the mage pleaded.

"You're right, I won't," Adrian growled and then leapt. The flames streaming around him and a yellow dragon's head made of fire surrounded his foot. "Ryu rider kick!"

He slammed into the demon mage and sent him flying back into the same wall he had crashed into moments before, but this time he exploded in a ball of red flames on impact.

Ryu landed on the ground, crouching down and staring at the flames and debris.

"Wow, I didn't know you had it in you," Meth commented.

Adrian didn't answer, but turned and walked away.

--

Several miles away, a small child ran. Rain was pouring down around him, making it even harder to see through the night. He yelped as he slipped on the mud and was sent sliding down a muddy slope, plants whipping at him as he went.

He reached the bottom of the hill without injury and continued running. He was so lost; he wasn't sure which direction his village was in.

"Hey, I think we lost them," the boy glanced down at the small scaly creature in his arms. "You better rest. You'll be able to find your way better in daylight anyway."

"Okay," the boy replied, glancing around for a suitable place to sleep.


	5. Episode 5: Gray Fang

Disclaimer: I don't own Kamen Rider, in any shape, or form, except for this work of fan fiction.

Episode 5

Gray Fang

_Adrian reached down and flipped the segment of armor on the left side of his belt down and pulled up on the legs there, thrusting out the golden dragon head._

_"Flare up!"_

_A stream of fire shot out of the dragon's mouth and down to Ryu's foot, streaming up around it and surrounding him in flames. He glared at Michael._

_"Stop! I'll leave Mandy alone, I'll leave the city. You'll never see me again!" the mage pleaded._

_"You're right, I won't," Adrian growled and then leapt. The flames streaming around him and a yellow dragon's head made of fire surrounded his foot. "Ryu rider kick!"_

_He slammed into the demon mage and sent him flying back into the same wall he had crashed into moments before, but this time he exploded in a ball of red flames on impact._

_Ryu landed on the ground, crouching down and staring at the flames and debris._

_"Wow, I didn't know you had it in you," Meth commented._

_Adrian didn't answer, but turned and walked away._

_------------------_

_Several miles away, a small child ran. Rain was pouring down around him, making it even harder to see through the night. He yelped as he slipped on the mud and was sent sliding down a muddy slope, plants whipping at him as he went._

_He reached the bottom of the hill without injury and continued running. He was so lost; he wasn't sure which direction his village was in._

_"Hey, I think we lost them," the boy glanced down at the small scaly creature in his arms. "You better rest. You'll be able to find your way better in daylight anyway."_

_"Okay," the boy replied, glancing around for a suitable place to sleep._

--------------------

"Wow, I'm amazed how you drew out all of that power," Meth said, as he hovered in the air next to Adrian. It had been several days after their last fight. Adrian had been busy with school, so he hadn't talked much with Meth. The dragon hovered next to him as he walked down the sidewalk.

"Oh? Well, Michael made me mad, I guess it makes drawing out energy easier," Adrian shrugged.

"It shouldn't make it that much easier," Meth pausing in the air and appearing thoughtful. "Oh, well."

Adrian wanted to ask Meth what he meant, but before he could, he walked into someone. The two of them were thrown back from the impact.

He groaned as he pushed himself up. He glanced up at the sky, to see Meth gaining altitude. Adrian turned his attention to the person he had crashed into.

It was a young boy, about thirteen years old. His skin was tan. Adrian guessed him to be of native American descent. His hair was dark black and he was wearing a blue jacket.

A glint of yellow appeared at the edge of Adrian's vision and he refocused his sights on it. The creature rolled onto its feet. It was covered in yellow scales, a long tail stretched out behind it, it's only other limbs were its two feet, positioned near the front of its body. Its head was large and had two short brown horns sticking out of the back. Its eyes were a bright orange color.

"Meth!" Adrian shouted. His emotions were a strange mix of calmness and excitement.

The red dragon swooped down as the boy scooped the golden creature up and attempted to conceal it in his jacket. Meth stared at the yellow lizard for a few moments, before he growled and lunged forward. The impact knocked the boy over again.

Adrian gasped and jumped forward, grabbing the dragon and pulling him away from the yellow lizard, which he had been trying to claw and bite through the jacket. Meth beat his wings, trying to escape Adrian's grip and nearly succeeding. Adrian growled and pulled the dragon to his chest, wrapping both of his arms tightly around him. Meth continued to struggle, now raking his claws against Adrian's arms.

"Sorry," Adrian said to the boy and the lizard thing. His voice somewhat high from the pain Meth was inflicting on his arm. "He's not normally like this."

"Let go of me!" Meth demanded. "Let me at that filthy traitor."

"Who are you calling traitor?" the lizard asked. "I haven't even met you until now."

"Your whole kind are traitors," Meth growled. His speaking had distracted him from clawing Adrian's arms. "You and all the earth dragons!"

The earth dragon frowned in confusion. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Meth snorted and finally stopped struggling. "Of course not. Guess your kind didn't care to pass down the story of their betrayal."

"What are you talking about?" Adrian asked.

Meth glanced up at him. "The earth dragons were supposed to help us fight the mages, but instead they decided they would just hide throughout the world and forget about the rest of us."

Silence reigned for a moment and then the boy finally spoke. "You're bleeding."

Adrian glanced down to find that the cuts Meth had scratched in his arms were indeed dripping blood. He reluctantly let go of the fire dragon and examined the multiple slashes in his arm. He stared at the bloody mess for a moment and then fainted from a combination of shock and blood loss.

-----------------------------------------

He groaned as he pushed himself up. A rusted warehouse roof loomed above him. Examining the room farther, he recognized it as the same warehouse he had shown Meth.

His arms had been bandaged, Adrian noticed and he glanced over at the boy. He pointed at the bandages and the boy nodded.

"Thanks," Adrian said.

Meth and the earth dragon were perched on a stack of crates, both on opposite sides and both ignoring the other. Meth licked spots of Adrian's blood off of his scales.

"What's your name?" Adrian asked, as he stood up.

"Little Wolf," the boy replied.

"Okay, where did you find that dragon?" Adrian asked.

"At my village," Little Wolf replied. "He was trying to stop the monsters attacking it."

"Monsters?" Adrian repeated in surprise. Meth had stopped licking himself and raised his head to listen.

"Yeah, they keep showing up and attacking us," Little Wolf said. "They haven't hurt anyone yet, but they cause a lot of destruction."

"Mages," Meth growled.

"They're from the logging company," the earth dragon growled. "I stalked them for a while and saw them swift into their human forms."

"Why are they attacking the village?" Adrian asked.

"If we leave, then the logging company has all the permission it needs to move in and clear out everything," Little Wolf said.

"Why are you here?" Meth asked.

"When the monsters injured him," he nodded his head at the earth dragon. "I grabbed him and ran for it. They chased me, but I lost them. However, I couldn't find my way back to the village. I wandered for a bit before we came here."

"Well, don't worry," Adrian said. "I'll get you back home and then…"

He paused and glanced at the wall. He leapt forward and pushed Little Wolf and himself behind a pillar, as the wall exploded inward, sending fragments of concrete flying.

Adrian glanced around the pillar to see a large creature enter the room. It was covered in gray hair. Its head was doglike with a collar of spikes wrapped around its neck. Two more heads emerged from its shoulders facing to the sides. It wore a black lion cloth.

"Run," Adrian whispered before he stepped out from behind the pillar.

The mage turned its blood red eyes on him and Adrian felt a chill run up his spine. "Where's the boy? I can smell him."

"Meth," the dragon leapt off the stack of crates and glided over to him, separating into the Ryu belt and wrapping around Adrian's waist. Adrian pushed Meth's horns together, his mouth opening and a cloud of fire emerging and attaching to Adrian's back forming into large flaming wings. A flaming dragon head raised itself above his own.

"Henshin!"

He pushed the button above the belt, the wings wrapped around him, forming into the Ryu suit, while the dragon head covered his own, forming his helmet. The suit glowed red hot for a moment before cooling.

Little Wolf emerged from behind the pillar and ran for the small crack in the small, sliding out of it. The mage glanced at him for a moment, but made no move to pursue, instead it turned back to Kamen Rider Ryu.

"Let's play, shall we?"

"Mess with me and you're going to get burnt," Adrian replied, before he leapt into the air and extended his foot. The kick collided with the mage's muscular chest and caused him to stumbled back.

Ryu threw a punch at the mage's shoulder, hitting the head there. He was surprised to hear the head yelp in pain. The mage took advantage of his distraction to knee him in the stomach. Then it grabbed his arm and squeezed. Adrian cried out in pain as the scratches on his arm throbbed in pain.

"Thought I didn't notice your arm?" the canine smirked.

Adrian tried to throw a punch, but the mage batted his arm away and then punched him in the chest. The air was knocked from his lungs as the blow sent him flying through the air. Adrian rolled as he landed and stood up, raising his fists.

The mage approached, it groaned as a yellow projectile slammed into its chest. It glanced up at the earth dragon, who spat several more yellow balls of energy at it. The blasts slammed into the mage's chest with surprising force. He roared in rage and grabbed a nearby crate, hurling it at the dragon with ease.

The dragon leapt out of the way, seeming to almost float through the air. He landed at Ryu's feet and looked up at him. "I can help."

The dragon leapt up, as Adrian extended his hand. Just before the dragon reached Adrian's hand, a blast of fire shot from his palm and sent the earth dragon flying away. Ryu gasped in surprised. He hadn't done that.

"We don't need your help," Meth growled.

Adrian looked up in time to see the mage slam its hand into his chest, its dull claws drawing sparks. It grabbed Adrian's arm and slammed its free hand against it. Adrian howled in pain.

--------------------------------------

Little Wolf gasped as he ran from the warehouse. He whipped his head around, unsure which direction he should run in.

He spotted a man walking toward him and was about to ask him for help, when he recognized him.

A brown glow covered the man's form as he morphed into a light brown creature. His skin was covered in raised bands. His head grew massive and lost its eyes, a large circular maw the only feature. Claws extended from its arms and its left hand was larger then the other.

Little Wolf screamed as it charged at him.

--------------------------------------------

Adrian gasped as he heard the scream. The mage had twisted him around and now had its arm wrapped around his neck. Ryu was beginning to black out from lack of oxygen.

He reached up and slowly pried the monster's arm away from his neck. He spun around and attempted to connect with a punch, but the mage dodged and threw a punch of its own.

Ryu was sent flying from the blow. He back-flipped in the air, flipping down the segment on the left side his belt. He kicked off of a pillar, flipping back toward the mage, as he pulled the lever-like legs of the belt.

"Flare up!"

A stream of fire traveled down Ryu's leg to his foot and formed into a flaming dragon head. The mage gasped just before Ryu's burning foot slammed into him. He howled in pain as the blow sent him flying through the air. He collided with a stack of boxes, sparks and flames flying from the force.

Adrian gasped and leaned over, taking a moment to catch his breath. He glanced up and saw the mage stumbled to his feet, before it turned and ran.

Ryu turned and headed for the warehouse's exit. He gasped as he saw the mage, who has holding onto an unconscious Little Wolf. The mage turned its head toward him and hissed. Adrian charged at him, but the worm mage sank into the ground, avoiding the rider's kick.

A pile of chewed up macadam and freshly turned earth was the only evidence that the mage and Little Wolf had been there. Adrian growled and kicked a large chunk of macadam sending it flying across the ground.

Meth unwrapped himself from around Adrian's waist, the Ryu suit vanishing in a cloud of flames as he did. "Come on, let's go find them."

"I'll go find them," Adrian said, his tone growling. "After your last performance, I'm not interested in continuing my partnership with you."

"What?" Meth sounded hurt.

"You heard me," Adrian said. "Get out of here."

Meth sighed and opened his wings, flapping them and soaring into the sky.

Adrian glanced back at the warehouse. He crawled back in and made his way over to the unconscious earth dragon. He carefully picked the dragon up and placed it in his backpack.


	6. Episode 6: Fist of Stone

Disclaimer: I don't own Kamen Rider, except for Kamen Rider Ryu and the assorted characters.

Episode 6

Fist of Stone

_He gasped as he saw the mage, who has holding onto an unconscious Little Wolf. The mage turned its head toward him and hissed. Adrian charged at him, but the worm mage sank into the ground, avoiding the rider's kick. _

_A pile of chewed up macadam and freshly turned earth was the only evidence that the mage and Little Wolf had been there. Adrian growled and kicked a large chunk of macadam sending it flying across the ground. _

_Meth unwrapped himself from around Adrian's waist, the Ryu suit vanishing in a cloud of flames as he did. "Come on, let's go find them."_

_"I'll go find them," Adrian said, his tone growling. "After your last performance, I'm not interested in continuing my partnership with you."_

_"What?" Meth sounded hurt. _

_"You heard me," Adrian said. "Get out of here." _

_Meth sighed and opened his wings, flapping them and soaring into the sky. _

_Adrian glanced back at the warehouse. He crawled back in and made his way over to the unconscious earth dragon. He carefully picked the dragon up and placed it in his backpack. _

--------------------------------

Adrian gasped as he felt the dragon squirming in his backpack. He checked to make sure the streets were abandoned and slung his pack off his shoulders. He unzipped the opening and the earth dragon stuck his head out of the opening.

"What's the big idea?!" he demanded.

Adrian clamped a hand over the dragon's mouth. "Quiet."

"Where are you taking me?" the dragon asked, wriggling out of the pack and dropping to the ground. He grunted as he hit the pavement.

"Back to my house," Adrian replied.

"Where's Little Wolf and that mouthy fire dragon?" the earth dragon asked, crawling after Adrian.

"I told Meth to buzz off after the fight," Adrian said, rubbing the bandages on his arms. "The mages took Little Wolf."

The earth dragon stopped and frowned. "Are you going to go after them?"

"Of course."

"Without the mouthy fire dragon?"

"Yes," Adrian almost shouted. "He's too hotheaded for me to trust him."

"But without Meth, you can't become a rider," the earth dragon pointed out.

"Well, can't-."

"Meth bonded his powers with you, I can only give you my powers if they're channeled through him," the earth dragon said.

"That's just great," Adrian sighed. He glanced down at his feet. "What's your name anyway?"

"Korthin," the dragon replied.

Adrian repeated the name, glad that it wasn't as long and difficult to pronounce as Meth's full name. "Well, Korthin, do you know where that logging company is at?"

Korthin shook his head. "I couldn't find it from here."

"Then I need to stop by my house," Adrian said.

------------------------------------

Meth growled as he circled overhead of Adrian and the earth dragon. They had stopped and exchanged a few words, but now the earth dragon was in the backpack and they were continuing on their way.

The dragon raised his head and glided several feet away. It looked like Adrian was heading back toward his house.

_I'm not going to leave you alone,_ Meth thought. _Like it or not, I need you and you need me._

Meth paused as something on the ground caught his sensitive eyes. Two people emerged from an alleyway next to a parked limo. He did recognize either of them, but since they were carrying the unconscious Little Wolf, he guessed they were the mages that had attacked them. Meth watched as they loaded Little Wolf into the backseat of the limo and then both got into the front.

As the car started and headed down the road, Meth changed direction and pursued it.

------------------------------------------------

"How's that going to help?" Korthin asked.

Adrian looked up from the glowing computer screen. "Well, I've found out the name of the logging company from there I've found their active logging sites and found the address of the site here. Now all I have to do is plug all that information into mapquest and we've got all the information we need."

"Suppose they take Little Wolf someplace else?" Korthin asked.

"That's the only place I could think of," Adrian said. "Unless they're going to hold them in one of their houses, or an abandoned warehouse, that's the place to look."

"And how do you plan to get there?" the earth dragon asked.

Adrian opened his mouth to reply and then remembered that he needed Meth in order to get his uncle's motorcycle to run. He glanced at Korthin. "Meth enchanted my uncle's bike so it would run, can you do the same?"

"I can try," Korthin shrugged.

"All right," Adrian said pushing himself out of his chair. "Let me go see if I can find my helmet."

He wrote a note and left it on the fridge for his aunt and uncle in case they should get home before he came back. It explained that he had headed over to Mandy's. Then he headed into the garage and found his motorcycle helmet. He brushed several cobwebs off it and returned to the living room.

They headed outside and Adrian removed the tarp from the old motorcycle. Korthin stared at the bike for several seconds and then inhaled sharply, before breathing a yellow ball of energy out. The ball floated over to the bike and when it hit, the bike glowed yellow briefly before it was engulfed in flames. Adrian pulled his hands away, in spite of the lack of heat. It changed into the same red and gold dragon themed bike it had when Meth had enchanted it.

"That's the best I can do," Korthin frowned.

Adrian slipped the helmet over his head, grateful it still fit. "It's fine."

He swung a leg over the bike and Korthin leapt up after him, climbing into Adrian's open backpack. Adrian bit his lip for a moment as he repeated the directions in his head for a moment and then turned and drove out of the driveway, hoping no one would recognize him.

--------------------------------------------------

Meth swooped down and wrapped his claws around the mouse. He was tired and hungry and needed something to eat before he tried to rescue Little Wolf. The limo had headed to the logging site and Meth had watched from the air as the worm mage had his flunkies drag the kicking and screaming boy into a mobile home.

They tied him up and threw him in a back room. They had left a window open. Meth took a moment to digest his meal and then leapt back into the air. He beat his wings and soared over the clearing. He turned and dived toward the open window. He beat his wings to kill his speed before he reached the window and flew through it.

Little Wolf gasped as the noise and rolled over to face the dragon. Meth raised his tail in front of his mouth and made a shushing noise. He prowled over and bit at the gag covering the boy's mouth, tearing it off.

"What are you doing here?"

"Rescuing you," Meth said, fluttering over to Little Wolf's bound hands. He opened his mouth and began biting at the thick strands of rope. "Don't ask stupid questions."

Little Wolf was silent for a moment as Meth bit and tugged on his binds. "You don't like Korthin because of something his ancestors did."

"The earth dragons promised to help us fight the mages and they betrayed us," Meth muttered through his mouthful of rope.

"But Korthin had nothing to do with that," Little Wolf said. "He said he barely even spent a lot of time with his parents. You can't blame him for something somebody else did."

Meth didn't reply; he was too busy with the ropes.

------------------------------------------------

Adrian turned the motorcycle down the dirt road. He felt relieved to have found the logging site without getting lost.

"What do you plan to do?" Korthin asked.

"Sneak around; find Little Wolf, then sneak back out?" Adrian tried. Korthin sighed.

Adrian slide the motorcycle to a stop as he found the road blocked. A large burly man wearing a grey jacket blocked his way. The man's silver hair was pulled back into a ponytail. In spite of his hair color, he looked quite young. Just beyond him, Adrian saw the logging site, which was completely abandoned.

"Out of the way," Adrian growled, revving the bike's engine.

The man smirked in reply and then leapt into the air. His foot connected with Adrian's chest and sent him flying off the bike. He grunted as he hit the ground and rolled across it.

Korthin slipped out of the backpack and spat an orb at the mage. A grey glow surrounded the man as he transformed into the Cerberus mage and swatted the orb of energy to the side. The earth dragon leapt off the ground and slammed into the mage's chest, releasing a spray of sparks and causing him to stumble back.

"Get moving," Korthin called at Adrian, who leapt off the ground, and grabbed the handlebars of his bike, lifting it up and climbing on.

The mage attempted to leap at him again, but Korthin leapt off the ground and slammed into him a second time.

Adrian sped into the logging site, heading toward the mobile home in the center of it. His eyes alert for the worm mage. He pulled the bike to a stop in front of the home, and got off it. He pulled off his helmet.

The ground beneath Adrian's feet rumbled and the worm mage rose out of it, wrapping its hand around Adrian's neck. The mage raised Adrian into the air. Adrian grabbed the mage's wrist and squeezed, but it didn't have any effect.

Growling, the mage turned and walked past the mobile home. Adrian tried to turn his head and see where the mage was taking him. He gasped as he saw the edge of a cliff. The mage screeched and tossed Adrian through the air, sending him flying over the edge of the cliff. At the same time, something red dashed out of the mobile home's window.

Adrian gasped as he saw Meth diving after him, the small dragon quickly caught up to him and wrapped around his waist. Adrian reached for the Ryu Belt's buckle and pushed the horns together, not sure how transforming would save him.

Flames spewed out of Meth's mouth and attached to Adrian's back, forming into a pair of wings. The wings spread and Adrian twisted from falling head first to feet first, his decent slowing, until he was hovering. He beat his wings and flew up the side of the cliff. A flaming dragon's head extended above his own and slammed into the worm mage as soon as they reached the top of the cliff.

"I'm only working with you because I have no other choice," Adrian told Meth as they landed. He hit the button on the buckle and Meth's mouth snapped closed. "Henshin."

The wings covered Matthew forming into his armor, while the dragon's head covered his face and formed his helmet.

Ryu turned to face the worm mage, who was picking himself off the ground.

"Mess with me and you're going to get burnt!" Adrian shouted, charging at the worm and swinging his fist at its head. The blow connected as well as several more punches. The mage stumbled back and Ryu stepped forward, pressing his advantage with a kick.

Ryu grabbed Meth's tail and wings and stacked them on top of each other, forming his dagger. He swung the weapon at the monster, which blocked with the claws on his oversized hand. Adrian's next slash connected with the worm's chest. The worm stepped back and sank into the ground.

Adrian gasped and glanced around. The mage shot out of the ground a few feet in front of him and flew through the air like a missile. The mage slashed its claws across his chest as it flew past. Adrian spun around, to find the worm burrow back into the ground. It shot back out a moment later and hit Ryu from the side. Adrian gasped and glanced around. He stopped and closed his eyes, listening for the rumbling he had heard before.

He snapped his eyes open and dived to the side as the mage shot of the ground behind him, Adrian spun as his hit the dirt and drove his foot into the mage's chest, sending him sailing over the edge of the cliff. The mage screeched as it fell.

"Little Wolf is in the home," Meth said.

"Is he safe?" Adrian asked.

"Yes."

"Then we'll go help Korthin first," Adrian decided, turning and running.

Korthin was jumping in and out of the ground, slamming into the Cerberus mage in much the same way as the worm mage had done to Ryu. The mage roared and swung its fist, landing a lucky hit and sending Korthin flying through the air.

Adrian raised his dagger and charged. He slashed the mage's side, the creature grunting in surprise. It turned and swung an arm at him. Adrian ducked and slashed him across the chest. The mage roared and drove both of its fists into Ryu's chest. Sparks flew from the rider's chest as he flew through the air.

Ryu groaned as he hit the ground and rolled across it, stopping facedown. Adrian started to push himself up, but the mage stepped over and slammed a foot down on his dagger, preventing him from lifting it, then it kicked him in the chest.

The mage kicked the dagger across the ground, as Adrian stood up and raised his fists. The worm mage screeched as it shot out of the ground and slashed its claws against Ryu.

Landing on the ground, the mage turned and released another angry screech before it charged at Adrian. A yellow orb slammed into its chest.

Adrian glanced over at Korthin.

"He is my prey," the Cerberus mage growled walking over to his companion.

"I will not let this fool get away with harming me," the worm growled back.

"I guess you guys don't get along too well," Adrian laughed.

"Earth dragon!" Meth shouted. "Do you still want to help?"

Korthin nodded enthusiastically and leapt into the air, spitting a small yellow object out of his mouth. Adrian raised his hand, the object coming to rest in his palm. It was a small jewel that resembled Korthin's head.

"All right, let's shake things up!" Adrian declared, inserting the jewel into the segment of armor on the right side of his belt. He pulled back on the legs there and the dragon's head was thrust out the front. The dragon's mouth opened and a yellow orb of light shot out.

"Energize! Earth Form!" Korthin's voice seemed to come from the belt.

The yellow orb moved up and hovered in front of Ryu's forehead. The orb pulsed and then split into a cloud of glowing dust particles which descended around Ryu, the red parts of his armor turning yellow, while the gold pieces turned bronze. Flames moved across the lenses of his mask as they turned from blue to orange.

Cracks developed in the golden dragon head on the back of his left hand and then it shattered revealing a new head beneath it, this one resembling Korthin's head.

"Oh, I like this," Adrian commented as he examined his new armor.

The Cerberus mage howled and charged forward. Ryu ducked a slash from the mage's claws and slammed his fist into the canine's muzzle. The mage yelped in pain. Ryu threw another punch, hitting the head on the mage's left shoulder. He kicked, he was disappointed that the blow did not have the same force as his punches, so he threw another punch into the Cerberus' chin and sent him flying through the air.

Korthin leapt into the air and toward Adrian's right hand. Korthin's sides flipped forward to lie next to his head, while his tail flipped around and covered the top of his head, the bladed tip of his tail in front of his snout and linking together with the sides. Adrian grabbed hold of the handle behind Korthin's head. He raised the newly formed shield-like weapon.

The worm mage screeched and spat a cloud of black liquid from its mouth. Ryu dodged the cloud and closed the distance between him and the mage. The mage attacked first, swinging its oversized claws. Ryu blocked with his shield and then slammed the weapon into the mage's shoulder, electing a screech and a spray of sparks. He slashed the weapon across the mage's chest, releasing another shower of sparks.

Ryu flipped the left segment of armor up and then pushed down on the legs. The golden dragon head was thrust forth and it released a fireball which revolved around Ryu and then moved up to the shield. Adrian gripped the back of Korthin's head and pulled back on the handle, Korthin's mouth opened and the fireball entered it. He pushed the handle back in and Korthin's mouth closed. A shockwave of yellow energy shot through the surface of the shield's blades and it start glowing yellow.

The two mages gasped as Ryu charged at them and then leapt into air, pulling his arm back for a punch. The worm mage grabbed the Cerberus' arm and pulled him in front of himself as Ryu descended toward them. Adrian slammed the shield into the Cerberus' mage's chest, sending both mages flying through the air. They landed several feet away.

The Cerberus mage stayed down, while the worm clambered back to its feet. The worm gasped in fear and turned, sinking into the ground.

"Don't let him get away!" Korthin's voice said from the right side of Adrian's belt. Ryu holstered his shield on the right side of his belt, directly behind the section of armor there.

Ryu turned and walked over to his bike, climbing on. He gunned the engine and flipped the left segment on his belt forward and pulled back on the legs.

"Flare up!"

A fire ball emitted from the dragon head again and flew toward the bike's head as Ryu rode forward. The bike's mouth opened and swallowed the fireball. It released a beam of yellow energy, which formed around the bike, the front of it forming into a drill. The drill burrowed into the ground, followed by Ryu and the bike. The earth bulged as the bike moved through it and then exploded in a cloud of dust. The worm mage was sent flying through the air. The mage climbed to its feet and stumbled into the forest.

Ryu's bike burst out of the ground, flying through the air, before landing. He glanced around and saw that both of the mages had disappeared.

---------------------------------------

The worm mage gasped as he stumbled through the forest. He stopped and leaned against a tree trunk panting.

A growl attracted his attention and he glanced up to find the Cerberus mage glaring at him. The mage yelped in fear. "Wait, Grey Fang…"

Grey Fang didn't wait. Instead he leapt forward and plunged his teeth into the worm mage's neck. The mage screeched in pain and then exploded in a yellow fireball.

------------------------------------------

"Are you okay?" Adrian asked. Meth flew behind him, while Korthin crawled across the ground.

"I'm fine," Little Wolf replied, walking next to Adrian. "Did you get the monsters?"

"I'm not sure," Adrian replied. "But if you see them, or anything like them again, let me know."

Little Wolf nodded. He glanced over at Korthin. "What are you going to do now?"

"I'm sticking with these two," Korthin replied. "They need someone dependable after all."

"What does that mean?" Meth growled.

"I'll give you a ride back to the reservation," Adrian said, heading over to his bike as Meth and Korthin began to bicker.


	7. Episode 7: Cheating Death

Disclaimer: I don't own the Kamen Rider series, just the characters and concept of this fanfic.

Episode 7

Cheating Death

Adrian was glad to have Korthin. If it meant being able to enter a new form and wield a new weapon, it was almost worth putting up with the arguing between him and Meth.

In spite of the fact that the earth dragon had probably saved both of them, Meth still didn't completely trust him.

Every time he was alone, Adrian would find both of the dragons following him. And almost always they would get into some kind of fight, even if it was over the most trivial thing.

Adrian had taken steps to make sure that he was rarely alone, thus the dragons would just have to argue in private. He was currently in the park where he had first met Meth. The area was rather deserted, but the two dragons were out of sight. Adrian felt uneasy having the two out in the open.

Meth didn't like hiding "like some kind of scared animal." Korthin was more agreeable, since he spent a good amount of time underground and out of sight anyway.

A fortuneteller was set up beside the pathway a few feet ahead of him. A frown twisted his face as he thought of Mandy's grandma. The man appeared to be of Asian descent. He was wearing a bright yellow robe and several necklaces dangled from his neck. He had a small table set up in front of himself and a deck of cards in his hands.

"Ah, perhaps you would like your future read?" the man asked as Adrian got closer.

"No, thanks," Adrian replied.

"Are you sure?" the man asked. "You seem to have a certain aura about you. You'll definitely be important in the grand scheme of things."

Adrian fought back a laugh. "No, thanks."

"I'll waive the price," the man said.

"Okay, fine," Adrian shrugged.

The man shuffled the deck of cards and then turned the top card over. Adrian realized the man wasn't using the traditional tarot cards, or the poker cards that Mandy's grandmother used as he saw the cloaked skeletal figure on the card. "Death is stalking you."

A harsh laugh attracted the attention of both of them. Adrian sighed as he saw Mandy's grandmother. "You call that fortunetelling? Please, you couldn't predict the path a slug would take."

"And who might you be?" the man asked, his voice carefully emotionless.

"The only real fortuneteller in this city apparently," she replied. She walked past the two of them. Adrian waited and then followed at a distance. They were both heading to Mandy's house.

The fortuneteller waited several seconds and then pulled another card from the top of the deck and glared after both of them. "Yes… death stalks you both."

The man remained unaware of the two dragons sitting in a nearby tree branch.

-----------------------------

Adrian glanced around as he entered the café. The tables were rather empty. Mandy's grandmother was behind the counter, her deck of playing cards in hand. Adrian stepped past her and toward Mandy's mother.

"Is Mandy here?"

"Yes, she is," she said then turned to fetch her daughter.

Adrian sat down at one of the tables while he waited. He noticed someone walk up and sit down in front of Grandma. He didn't look up until he heard Mandy come thundering down the steps. He turned around and caught sight of the man.

"If you continue as you always have, then you will succeed, but if you change…" the old woman frowned. "It will seal your fate."

The man nodded his head, his ponytail bobbing and stood up. He faced Adrian and smirked. Adrian wondered how he had missed the mage when he had come into the café.

"Adrian?" Mandy asked.

"Perhaps we should step outside?" the mage asked.

"Yes, let's," Adrian said, regaining his composure.

The two headed for the door, Mandy followed, much to Adrian's distaste.

"What are you doing here?" Adrian asked.

"This café has excellent spaghetti," the Cerberus mage replied.

"You'd better not hurt anyone," Adrian said.

"I would not hurt any of these people," the man glanced back at Mandy. "Such an act of violence would be beneath me. You're the only one I want."

"Let's go then," Adrian growled.

"Not now," the mage said. "I just ate. Fighting is not good for digestion."

"You think I'm going to just let you go?" Adrian asked.

"If we fight here, people could get hurt," he smirked. "You wouldn't want that would you?"

"No."

"I thought not," he said. "I am known as Silver Fang by others. I shall inscribe my name in your tombstone."

He turned and walked away. Adrian clenched his fist.

"I guess that was a mage?" Mandy said.

Adrian nodded. "Yeah, let's get out of here."

The two turned and headed in the opposite direction that Silver Fang had went in. Adrian had planned to explain to Mandy about how he had found Korthin and maybe introduce her to the dragon. However, after encountering Silver Fang he felt reluctant to talk about his double life.

A roar sounded and the two looked up to find a mage flying at them. Adrian pushed Mandy out of the way, but he wouldn't have the time to move himself out of the way.

A red blur and a yellow blur slammed into the creature's side, knocking him off course and causing him to crash into the ground.

"Thanks," Adrian sighed as the two dragons placed themselves between him and the mage. He grabbed Mandy's hand and pulled her to her feet. "Run. Get out of here."

She nodded and ran, joining the small crowd fleeing the scene.

Adrian turned to face the mage. The creature was gold in color and its body appeared to be quite skeletal. A hood covered the mage's skull-shaped head. Adrian immediately thought back to the fortuneteller he had come across earlier. "Not very subtle are you?"

"Let's go!" Meth said leaping toward Adrian.

He caught Meth, who immediately extended into belt mode. Adrian wrapped the belt around his waist and then pushed Meth's horns together. Flames spewed from Meth's mouth and attached to Adrian's back, forming wings.

"Henshin!" Adrian charged at the mage, pushing the button on the top of the buckle, snapping Meth's mouth and horns back into position. The wings covered Adrian and formed the Ryu suit, while a flaming dragon head covered his face and formed into his helmet.

Ryu slammed a fist into the mage's chest, a sizzling sound accompanying the hit as his still red hot armor burned the mage. The armor cooled before Adrian dealt his next blow, a punch to the head.

The reaper mage stumbled back and Adrian jumped after it, slamming a kick into its chest. The mage groaned and grabbed Adrian's foot. Ryu gasped and the mage chuckled.

Korthin leapt forward and rammed into the mage's back. The reaper gasped in pain and released Adrian's foot; Ryu jumped and landed a spin kick on the mage's skull.

A scythe appeared in the mage's hands. The weapon was the same color as the mage himself and covered with bone-like designs. He lunged forward and swung the scythe at Ryu. He ducked under it and then rolled out of the way as the mage attempted to stab it down on him. He rolled to his feet and was forced to leap backwards as the mage swung the scythe again.

The leap carried Adrian a good distance away from the mage. "Time for a change in tactics."

Korthin leapt into the air and spat out the small yellow jewel that Adrian had used to access earth form before. Meth had explained a bit about the jewel, saying that it was the dragon's tongue. It was the part of the dragon that let them use their elemental power.

Adrian inserted the jewel into the segment on the right side of his belt. He pulled the legs there back and the dragon's head was thrust out of the armor, spitting out a yellow orb.

"Energize! Earth Form!"

The mage charged forward, scythe raised for a downward swing, but the orb slammed into mage and sent him flying back.

The orb circled around Ryu for several seconds and then hovered in front of his forehead. It burst into a cloud of dust which changed Ryu's armor yellow and bronze. Flames moved across the lenses of his helmet turning them orange. The dragon head on the back of his left hand cracked, revealing the new head underneath.

"Let's shake things up," Adrian said as Korthin leapt into his right hand transforming into the Earth Buckler.

The mage pushed himself up and roared. The two charged at each other. Adrian knocked the mage's scythe away and slipped around it, slashing the shield across the mage's chest. The reaper mage spun around and tried to slash him with the scythe again, but Adrian just blocked with the Earth Buckler and then slid it down the scythe's staff and into the mage's chest.

The mage swung its scythe, this time it connected with Adrian's right arm. He yelped in pain and dropped Korthin, clutching at his wrist. The mage chuckled and leapt forward bringing the scythe down at Ryu's shoulder. Adrian reached out and caught the scythe with his right arm.

"What?!" the mage exclaimed.

"Sorry, I tricked you," Adrian said, before slamming his free hand into the mages face, followed by several kicks and punches. The mage was forced to let go of his weapon and stumbled back to avoid further damage. The scythe glowed yellow before dissolving into thousands of glowing motes of light.

The mage growled and stepped back before turning and leaping back into the bushes it had originally emerged from.

Adrian ran after the mage, pushing through the bushes and glanced around to find that the mage had disappeared. He sighed and walked out of the bushes to find Korthin crawling towards him. He unhooked his belt and Meth returned to his dragon form, fluttering to the ground as the Ryu armor vanished in a cloud of fire and glowing dust.


	8. Episode 8: Reaper's Duel

Disclaimer: I no own Kamen Rider. I do own Kamen Rider Ryu. No steal my fan characters, or ideas.

Episode 8

Reaper's Duel

_"Sorry, I tricked you," Adrian said, before slamming his free hand into the mage's face, followed by several kicks and punches. The mage was forced to let go of his weapon and stumbled back to avoid further damage. The scythe glowed yellow before dissolving into thousands of glowing motes of light._

_The mage growled and stepped back before turning and leaping back into the bushes it had originally emerged from._

_Adrian ran after the mage, pushing through the bushes and glanced around to find that the mage had disappeared. He sighed and walked out of the bushes to find Korthin crawling towards him. He unhooked his belt and Meth returned to his dragon form, fluttering to the ground as the Ryu armor vanished in a cloud of fire and glowing dust._

"That coward," Meth growled. "Sneak attacking and then running away."

Adrian chose not to point out that his playing possum wasn't a very honorable way of fighting either.

Korthin sniffed the air. "I think I've got his scent. I'll follow him."

"I'll come with," Meth volunteered at once.

"No, he'll probably be watching the sky now," Korthin said. "It would be better if I follow him. Meet you back at your house?" With that the earth dragon leapt into the bushes, the sound of earth being turned accompanying his disappearance.

Adrian wondered for a moment how Korthin could detect a scent while underground.

The teen turned and headed in the direction Mandy had ran, hoping to catch up with her. Meth flapped his wings and flew beside him. This was the first time the two were together without Korthin's company since they had first found the earth dragon.

Adrian didn't want to discuss anything with the fire dragon. They had agreed they would work together to fight the mages and nothing more. Conversing with Meth would risk broaching that subject and then Adrian would most likely get angry and he'd rather be calm while he could. There'd be plenty of excitement later with both the reaper mage and Gray Fang targeting him.

"Where did that earth dragon come from?" Mandy asked, stepping out from around the corner of a building.

"You were watching?" Adrian asked, an annoyed tone entering his voice.

"Yes," Mandy replied. "I wanted to see you in action."

"Well, next time don't," Adrian said, trying not to sound too critical. "You might have gotten hurt."

"Not with you around to protect me," she replied teasingly. "So where did you get the new dragon from?"

Adrian sighed and launched into a recount of his last adventure. He avoided mentioning his fight with Meth, unwilling to discuss it while the dragon still silently hovered beside him.

However, Mandy noticed the gaps in his story and asked. "So Meth went to search for the mages from the air and you just took Korthin back to your house, without waiting for him to come back and tell you if he had found anything. Than you went and discovered the logging site's location and took Korthin, but again didn't wait for Meth. Meth meanwhile followed the mages to the same site… Did the two of you get into a fight?"

Meth answered her after a brief silence from Adrian. "Yes, we did."

"You're over it now though, right?"

"Yes, we are," Adrian answered.

Mandy gave him a disbelieving look. "Well, you'd better sort it out."

--------------------------------------------

Korthin poked his head out of the ground. He hated the city. Concrete covered all of the earth and he couldn't burrow through it without leaving large holes everywhere.

The mage stood in an alleyway nearby. The earth dragon had poked his head out of a small flower garden; at least there were plenty of these throughout the city for his use.

His target was watching the café Adrian frequented. He remember the noisy fire dragon saying Adrian's friend lived there as well as the old woman the mage had encountered earlier.

The old woman pushed her way out of the shop. She shouted something back into the building before turning and walking down the sidewalk. The mage left his hiding place and followed the old woman. Korthin gasped and dived under the ground, heading back to Adrian's house.

He left too quickly to see the third figure move to follow. Gray Fang walked quickly, catching up to the reaper mage and grabbing his shoulder, he spun the other mage around.

"Terrorizing old woman…" the silver haired mage growled. "…is not something I will stand for."

"Stay out of this, fur ball," the reaper spat, batting the hand from his shoulder and stepping back. A golden glow surrounded the mage as he transformed.

Gray Fang chuckled and pointed at the mage's chest. "I will crush you and grow stronger."

A silver glow emanated from him as fur sprouted from his skin and his head became more canine. He released a feral growl and leapt at the skeleton.

The skeleton threw a punch at the Cerberus mage, but the blow barely fazed him. He threw several more punches, but Gray Fang barely seemed to feel them. The canine mage retaliated with a slash of his claws. A cloud of sparks flew from the reaper mage's chest and he stumbled back.

-------------------------------

Adrian and Mandy gasped as they heard a loud clunk. The two glanced over at the source of the noise, to find Korthin comically pressed up against the sliding glass door. The earth dragon fell away as Adrian walked over and slid the door open.

"What is it?" Adrian asked as the dragon rolled to his feet. Meth leapt from the tree in the front yard and fluttered down next to Korthin.

"The mage is after the old fortuneteller," Korthin replied, gasping for breath.

"My grandma?! Why?" Mandy asked.

"We'll explain later," Adrian said, grabbing Meth's neck. The red dragon yelped before unclipping into the Ryu belt. Adrian slung the belt around his waist as he stepped out into the yard. "Mandy, tell my parents, I went out for a bit."

He pushed Meth's horns together and the dragon's mouth opened, releasing a cloud of flames which attached to Adrian's back and formed into the shape of wings. A flaming dragon head stretched out above Adrian's head.

"Henshin," Adrian pushed the button on the side of Meth's head. The flaming dragon head hissed as the wings closed around Adrian forming into the Ryu suit. The dragon head then descended over Adrian's face and formed into his helmet. The suit glowed red hot for a moment before cooling.

The old bike leaning against the shed turned its front tire and drove itself unto the driveway where flames engulfed it and it morphed into the red dragon themed motorcycle.

--------------------------------------

The skeleton landed a punch on Gray Fang's stomach. The mage howled in rage and swung his fist into the other mage's head and sent him rolling across the ground.

He stood up and raised his fists, ready for the next attack. However, the next attack didn't come from where he expected. His only warning was the low hum of an engine. He glanced in the direction of the sound, just in time to see Ryu pull a wheelie, the front tire of his bike slamming into the mage's chest.

The mage landed a few feet away as Ryu revived his bike. Gray Fang stepped back into the shadows to watch.

The Ryu Roader sped toward the reaper mage, who leapt to the side, his scythe appearing in his hands. Adrian gasped as the scythe slammed into his chest and threw him off the motorcycle. The scythe came down at him, but he rolled out of the way, grabbing the wings from the back of his belt and the tail from the left side.

He inserted the tail into the wings and then folded the wings around the tail, forming gun mode. He fired the gun at the mage, interrupting his next swing and causing him to stumble back. Ryu stood and fired several more fireballs from the gun, the first couple slammed into the mage, but the mage deflected the next volley with a swing of its scythe.

The masked rider separated the weapon back into its two components and then stacked the tail on top of the wings, forming a dagger. The two opponents charged each other. The mage swung at Ryu as soon as he was close enough, but he rolled under the swing, slashing his dagger against the mage's side as he did.

The mage spun around with another swing, this one connecting with Ryu's chest. He followed up with a second swing. Adrian stepped back as the blow connected. He flipped the segment of armor on the left side of his belt so that it was facing up.

Before Adrian could finish setting up his attack the mage leapt forward, scythe raised. He blocked the scythe with his dagger, but the mage pushed against the dagger and Ryu was forced to place both hands on dagger to keep the scythe from forcing it to stab him. The mage shouted a battle cry and charged forward, Ryu was forced to move backwards, until he slammed against the side of a building. With no place run, Adrian now found the force from the scythe harder to bear. He removed a hand from the dagger long enough to reach down and push the levers on the left side of his belt.

"Flare up!" A golden dragon head was thrust from the armor and it released a fireball which immediately hovered up to Ryu's dagger, covering the blade in flames and extending its length by a small amount. This extra length hit the reaper mage right in the face. The creature screeched and stumbled back, momentarily blinded.

Ryu wasted no time in swinging his flaming weapon at the staff section of the scythe. The scythe's blade was severed and sent flying into the air. Ryu slashed the dagger across the mage's chest twice and then spun and posed as the mage stumbled back, sparks spraying from its chest, before it exploded. The severed scythe blade clattered to the ground.

Adrian sighed and turned, walking towards his bike. A howl grabbed his attention and he looked up to find the Cerberus mage leaping towards him. The mage's claws slammed into his chest and he was sent flying back. He groaned as he crashed to the ground.

Gray Fang chuckled and then advanced on his prey.


	9. Episode 9: Eroding Earth

Disclaimer: I don't own Kamen Rider. Remember to review…

Episode 9

Eroding Earth

_The two opponents charged each other. The mage swung at Ryu as soon as he was close enough, but he rolled under the swing, slashing his dagger against the mage's side as he did._

_The mage spun around with another swing, this one connecting with Ryu's chest. He followed up with a second swing. Adrian stepped back as the blow connected. He flipped the segment of armor on the left side of his belt so that it was facing up._

_Before Adrian could finish setting up his attack the mage leapt forward, scythe raised. He blocked the scythe with his dagger, but the mage pushed against the dagger and Ryu was forced to place both hands on dagger to keep the scythe from forcing it to stab him. The mage shouted a battle cry and charged forward, Ryu was forced to move backwards, until he slammed against the side of a building. With no place run, Adrian now found the force from the scythe harder to bear. He removed a hand from the dagger long enough to reach down and push the levers on the left side of his belt._

_"Flare up!" A golden dragon head was thrust from the armor and it released a fireball which immediately hovered up to Ryu's dagger, covering the blade in flames and extending its length by a small amount. This extra length hit the reaper mage right in the face. The creature screeched and stumbled back, momentarily blinded._

_Ryu wasted no time in swinging his flaming weapon at the staff section of the scythe. The scythe's blade was severed and sent flying into the air. Ryu slashed the dagger across the mage's chest twice and then spun and posed as the mage stumbled back, sparks spraying from its chest, before it exploded. The severed scythe blade clattered to the ground._

_Adrian sighed and turned, walking towards his bike. A howl grabbed his attention and he looked up to find the Cerberus mage leaping towards him. The mage's claws slammed into his chest and he was sent flying back. He groaned as he crashed to the ground._

_Gray Fang chuckled and then advanced on his prey. _Adrian rolled back to his feet and brought up his arms in time to shield himself from Gray Fang's next punch. The blow was still strong enough to knock him back. He ducked under the mage's slash and then delivered a punch to the chest. The mage shrugged off the blow and slashed his claws across Ryu's chest, sending sparks flying.

Adrian leapt into the air and kicked forward with both feet, the mage grunted as Ryu's kick slammed into his chest, sending him stumbling back, while Ryu back flipped away.

This bought enough room between the two for Ryu to shout "Korthin." The earth dragon leapt forward, spitting out the dragon's tongue for Adrian to catch and insert into the right side of his belt. He pulled the legs there back and the dragon's tongue was thrust out.

"Energize! Earth Form!"

A yellow ball of energy floated up to Ryu's forehead, dispersing into a cloud of yellow dust which changed the color of his armor. Korthin then leapt into Adrian's outstretched hand and transformed into the Earth Buckler.

Ryu charged at the mage and thrust the shield forward, Gray Fang sidestepped the blow and slammed his hand into Adrian's back, causing him to stumble forward. He spun around, swinging the buckler in an arc, Gray Fang raised an arm and blocked, before performing a sweep kick. Adrian leapt over it and over the mage's head, landing behind him, causing the concrete to crack under the impact. He spun around and thrust his shield forward. Gray Fang managed to turn around and caught the blow in the chest.

The Cerberus mage howled in pain and rage, before swinging his claws across Ryu's chest twice. The third slash was blocked with the Earth Buckler.

Adrian realized that though Quake Form was stronger than the Cerberus mage, it was also slower then him. He stepped back and circled his opponent looking for an opening.

Gray Fang growled and slapped a hand against the ground before leaping into the air, arm drawn back for a punch. Ryu responded by leaping forward as well, Earth Buckler drawn back. The two collided, both of their punches connecting with the other's chest. The force of the blows sent both flying back.

Adrian hit the ground without the Ryu armor, the belt having come unclipped. He had also dropped the Earth Buckler. He groaned and spotted both dragon's shaking their heads. He turned to Gray Fang and saw to his relief that the mage had returned to human form and was holding his chest as though in pain.

Both of them stumbled to their feet and Gray Fang laughed. "Not bad."

He turned and walked off. Adrian briefly considered following him, but his ribs hurt too much. Meth and Korthin had meanwhile picked themselves up off the floor.

-------------------------------------

Getting back home was a rather nerve-wrecking experience for Adrian. In his rush to get to the fight, he had forgotten to bring a helmet, driving the bike home had not only been dangerous, but he was also afraid someone would see him on the unconventional bike and put two and two together. The helmet at least shielded his face.

He wondered how long he could get away with using the bike before either his aunt, or uncle noticed it was missing.

Adrian entered the kitchen to find his aunt and Mandy seated at the table going through a photo album.

"And there's Adrian when he was four..," his aunt said pointing at one of the photos.

"I'm back," Adrian announced going to the fridge to get some orange juice.

"Are these your parents?" Mandy asked.

Adrian leaned over her shoulder to see the picture she pointed out. He had been too young to remember when the picture had been taken, only being about a year old. He was in his mother's arms, his father whom he resembled quite a bit was standing next to her and in between the two was a small boy who bore a resemblance to Adrian's father and Adrian himself.

"You never told me you had a brother," Mandy said.

"The topic never came up," Adrian said, pouring himself a glass of orange juice.

------------------------------------------

"That went well," Korthin said. "We got rid of one mage and we know that we're on par with the other one. We just have to get a little bit stronger and we'll be able to beat him."

"I suppose," Meth said. The two of them were perched in the tree in Adrian's front lawn.

"You know for all our differences at least we're both trying to protect the same thing right?" Korthin said.

"And what might that be?" Meth asked.

"The humans," Korthin replied.

"I'm not fighting to protect humans," Meth said. "I'm fighting to destroy the mages. Nothing more."

"Well… that's still protecting humans," Korthin said.

"It's because humans are corruptible that the mages even exist," Meth growled. "Protecting them is a waste of time."

With that said, the fire dragon beat his wings and took flight. Korthin stared after him.

Meth circled higher, wondering at Korthin. Perhaps it would be easier to stand him if he explained the history of the war between the dragons and mages to him.

His pondering was cut short as he spotted something else flying through the air. He turned and dived back toward the ground, flaring his wings as he neared it to kill his speed, he flew over to the kitchen window.

Thankfully, Adrian was in a position to spot the dragon and Meth made a follow me gesture with his head. Adrian quickly excused himself and dashed outside. "Another one?"

"Yes."

-------------------------------------------

A blast of feathers slammed into the hood of a limousine. The car swerved as the driver lost control, crashing into another car and slamming it through a store front. Another car rear ended the limo.

The creature responsible descended from the sky, elegantly touching down on the street. Its arms were covered in purple feathers and looked vaguely wing-like. She wore golden armor on her chest. Her skin was a pale white as was the feather-like hair that stood up on her head. Her feet and hands were yellow and resembled the talons of a bird of prey.

She stalked toward the limo, before the hum of an engine caught her attention and she turned. Adrian rammed his motorcycle into her and sent her flying back into the wall of a building.

"There are some people trapped in the cars," Korthin reported. He was clinging to the back of the bike. He could see one of the victims, pinned beneath the mangled remains of her steering wheel. "No one's helping them…"

Indeed the people there were too busy fleeing the scene to pay attention.

"See if you can free them," Adrian said. He pushed together Meth's horns. The dragon was already wrapped around his waist. Flaming wings emerged from Adrian's back.

"Henshin!"

He rode the bike forward, the flaming wings lowering around him and causing the Ryu armor to appear. The mage leapt into the air and opened her wings, taking flight. Adrian grabbed Meth's tail and wings from the belt, his bike magically stayed on track while both of his hands were occupied with assembling the weapon into gun mode.

"Take this!" Adrian shouted pointing the gun skyward. Small fireballs shot from the end of the gun up at the mage. She was surprisingly agile however and avoided each of his shots.

She turned around and swooped towards him, claws first. Adrian ducked as far as he could on the bike and she flew over top of him. He pointed the gun back and pulled the trigger, this time the shot connected and the mage fell to the ground.

Adrian pulled the bike to a stop and dismounted, turning and walking towards the mage. He pulled the tail loose and stacked it on top of the handle.

The mage screeched and raised her arms, feathers flying off and at Adrian. Ryu swatted the feathers away with his dagger and dodged several others.

"Mess with me and you're going to get burnt," Adrian said, pointing the dagger at the mage. She squawked in surprise and then bent her knees, preparing to take flight. Adrian hurled the dagger at her and she was knocked backwards onto the ground.

Adrian took a step forward and then stopped as Gray Fang stepped into his field of vision.

"Now we finish things," Gray Fang said, a silver glow surrounding him as he transformed into his mage form. The harpy mage raised her arms and released a battle cry.

"Stay out of this," Gray Fang shot his arm out and smacked the harpy mage, knocking her into the air. She opened her wings and soared off. Adrian leapt forward and extended his foot, Gray Fang swatted his foot to the side and Ryu dropped to the ground. He was forced to roll out of the way as the mage stomped his foot down.

Ryu rolled into a crouch. A yellow orb slammed into Gray Fang's side and sent him stumbling. Korthin growled and leapt into Ryu's hand, transforming into the Earth Buckler as he did. The earth dragon tongue materialized above the right side of the belt and dropped into the Element Slot. Adrian pulled the lever back and the yellow dragon head was thrust out releasing the yellow orb which quickly hovered up to his forehead and then became the cloud of transforming yellow dust.

"Energize! Earth Form!"

Switching the shield to his right hand, Ryu charged at the Cerberus mage. He swung the shield at him, but he knocked it aside and then rapidly landed three punches. Adrian rolled to the side.

"Korthin, what's wrong? We're supposed to be stronger than this," Adrian said. He leapt over Gray Fang's next charge, but the mage managed to clip his legs and turn his landing into an uncontrolled tumble.

"I don't know!" Korthin exclaimed, his voice high with panic.

Gray Fang slashed his claws across Adrian's chest as he stood up and then kicked him, launching him several feet back. He then reared his head back and spread his arms appearing to be gathering his energies. He roared and spat a ball of purple energy from his mouth.

Ryu had barely regained his footing when the ball slammed into him and exploded, sending sparks everywhere and causing the abandoned car behind him to explode as well.


	10. Episode 10: Move Along

Disclaimer: I don't own Kamen Rider at all. I know I said I wasn't going to continue on this fic. Lucky for you guys I'm very indecisive.

Episode 10

Move Along

"_Stay out of this," Gray Fang shot his arm out and smacked the harpy mage, knocking her into the air. She opened her wings and soared off._

_A yellow orb slammed into Gray Fang's side and sent him stumbling. Korthin leapt into Ryu's hand transforming into the Earth Buckler. The earth dragon tongue materialized above the right side of the belt and dropped into the Element Slot. Adrian pulled the lever back and the yellow dragon head was thrust out releasing the yellow orb, which quickly hovered up to his forehead and then became the cloud of transforming yellow dust._

_Switching the shield to his right hand, Ryu charged at the Cerberus mage. He swung the shield at him, but he knocked it aside and then rapidly landed three punches. Adrian rolled to the side._

"_Korthin, what's wrong? We're supposed to be stronger than this," Adrian said. He leapt over Gray Fang's next charge, but the mage managed to clip his legs and turn his landing into an uncontrolled tumble._

"_I don't know!" Korthin exclaimed, his voice high with panic._

_Gray Fang slashed his claws across Adrian's chest as he stood up and then kicked him, launching him several feet back. He then reared his head back and spread his arms appearing to be gathering his energies. He roared and spat a ball of purple energy from his mouth._

_Ryu had barely regained his footing when the ball slammed into him and exploded, sending sparks everywhere and causing the abandoned car behind him to explode as well. _Adrian groaned as he hit the ground, he slowly pushed himself back up and raised his shield.

The mage howled into the air and charged at him. He swatted the Earth Buckler to the side and landed a punch to the Rider's gut. Ryu swung his shield up, but Gray Fang stepped back, he followed with another swing, but the canine caught the shield.

Adrian gasped as Gray Fang yanked Korthin out of his grasp and tossed the dragon to the side. A foot slammed into his stomach and knocked him back. He rolled across the ground, stopping in a kneeling position.

"We've got to try something different," Meth said.

"Yeah," Adrian agreed, his hand going to the Element Slot. He pressed a button on the armor and the Earth Tongue retracted back into it and ejected out the top.

"Blaze on! Fire Form!" the belt announced as flames covered his armor returning it to its red color. Adrian sighed in relief as he felt the fire dragon's power flow into him.

Growling, Gray Fang opened his mouth and spat another purple fireball. Ryu leapt into the air and hit the attack with a sidekick. The blast struck the ground between the two combatants, creating a small explosion. Adrian charged out of the flames and punched Gray Fang's chest. The mage grunted and stumbled back. He growled and stepped forward, swinging his claws at the Rider who managed to duck and twist around them.

Ryu leapt over his adversary, landing a few feet away from him. He jumped again as Gray Fang tried to rake his claws down his back. Twisting around in midair, Adrian landed beside his bike. Grabbing the handlebar, he mounted the motorcycle. He flipped the armor on the right of his belt forward and pulled back on its legs.

"Flare up!"

A small fireball emerged from the belt as the motorcycle sped at the Cerberus Mage. It entered the mouth on the bike's front and a tongue of flames shot forward. Gray Fang roared in pain as the flames assailed him. The fire pulled back around the bike taking the shape of a winged dragon. The still smoking mage gasped and leapt over Adrian. He pulled the bike to a stop and glanced back. The mage made another massive leap, landing on the side of a building, which he quickly scaled with his claws.

"Damn it," Meth said.

"Where's Korthin?" Adrian asked, glancing around as the wrecked street. The earth dragon had vanished.

* * *

Mandy tried to be cheerful as she wandered home, but couldn't stop worrying about Adrian. He'd done okay so far, but he never came away from a fight unscathed. She wished there was something she could do to help him.

She paused as a small yellow creature poked its head out of the ground beneath a tree. Mandy watched as the earth dragon scrambled across the sidewalk and into an alleyway.

Glancing left and right, she crossed the street and turned into the alley. She advanced cautiously, finding the dragon nowhere in sight. As Mandy passed the dumpster, she spotted the small reptile crouched behind it.

"You okay?" Mandy asked.

Korthin jumped and spun to face her, tensing up for a fight. He blinked in confusion as he saw her, trying to place her face.

"I'm Mandy," she said. "Adrian's friend."

"Oh, right…" the dragon nodded his large head. "I've seen you when I was following him around."

"What are you doing here?" Mandy asked.

He hung his head and sighed. "I can't help him fight anymore. I thought humans cared about each other. My parents only looked after me until I could fend for myself. When I found the human village full of people that lived together and seemed to look after each other I though-."

"You thought we were some great friendly and kind species?" Mandy finished. She glanced at the lid of the dumpster. Deciding it wasn't too dirty; she turned around and sat on top of it. "I'm sorry to say it, but we've got our share of flaws, too. So what happened?"

* * *

"Magic isn't easy," Meth said as he glanced around from atop a tree. "I guess dust butt lost whatever motivation it was that let him wield his powers."

"So you're telling me he's depressed?" Adrian asked. A moment of silence passed as a young couple approached and then disappeared around a turn.

Meth leapt and flapped his wings, landing in another tree ahead of the human. "Yeah, or something shook him up and he's having trouble with his powers. Emotions and magic can be an odd mix. Certain emotions can boost the poor of magic, while others drain their strength altogether. We civilized dragons train not to let emotion get in the way of magic casting."

"All of you train that way?"

"Well, the warriors take it most seriously," Meth said. "They- We can get pretty powerful."

* * *

"I see," Mandy said. "You saw people fleeing the scene of a battle leaving behind those that were trapped."

"Even us earth dragons will not leave those in danger behind," Korthin said. "If you saw someone in trouble, you tried to help!"

"That's not how humans work," Mandy explained. "Most of us will try to save ourselves. We can't breathe fire or break a boulder ten times our size. It takes a special kind of person to rush into a burning building to save strangers."

"You mean someone like Adrian?" Korthin asked.

Mandy chuckled. "Not really. Adrian has all those wonderful powers going for him. Maybe he'd do that without his powers and if these things happen like on TV we'll find out sooner or later."

* * *

Her prey might have escaped her once, but she knew where to look for him. The harpy stood perched on the edge of a skyscraper, watching the crowd many stories below with hawk-like vision.

The human responsible for firing her appeared, walking towards the building. He kept glancing around and up, searching for the creature that attacked his limo. He relaxed as he neared the entrance to the building.

The mage leapt from the building, spreading her wings as she dived. The wind rushed past her as she fell. She beat her wings as she neared the ground, killing her speed. She reached out with her feet and hooked her talons around the man's shoulders. He yelped in surprise as she hoisted him into the air.

She cackled as he shrieked in fear. This would be fun. She rose into the air, when she was almost to the top of the skyscraper, she let go. The man screamed even louder as he dropped towards the frightened spectators below.

Halfway through his fall, he felt a sharp tug on the back of his suit and his fall slowed. He gasped and twisted his head around to find a small red creature, flapping its wings madly to slow him down. The human grunted as they hit the ground, twisting his ankle. He collapsed to the ground as Meth released his jacket collar.

"Come on, run for it," Adrian shouted, egging on the scattering crowd. He forced his way through the crowd to Meth and the injured businessman. "Can you walk?"

The man groaned and tried to stand up, only to collapse back to the macadam.

"Oh, just great," Meth groaned.

They glanced up as the harpy screeched, diving towards them. Meth growled and launched a stream of flames from his mouth. The mage swooped up, avoiding the flames by a few inches. She spun around and raised her arms, feathers launched from her wings, raining down on them. Meth blurred back in forth in front of the two humans deflecting several of the sharp projectiles, Adrian used his body to shield the man from the feathers that got through, groaning as they cut through his clothes and skin.

"Let's go!" Meth said, wrapping himself around Adrian's waist.

The mage screeched and launched another barrage of feathers as Adrian pushed the dragon's horns together. A cloud of fire spilled from the dragon's mouth, burning through the cloud of feathers before striking the harpy and knocking her out of the air. The cloud floated backwards and attached to Adrian's back taking the shape of wings as a flaming dragon head rose above him.

"Henshin!" Adrian exclaimed, snapping Meth's jaws closed. The wings wrapped around his body forming his armor, while the dragon head covered his face forming his helmet. The armor glowed red hot for a moment before cooling. "Mess with me and you're going to get burnt!"

The mage pushed herself up and raised her arms, displaying her talon-like hands. Ryu charged her. He ducked under a swing of her wing and punched her stomach. He followed this up with a roundhouse kick, but she raised a wing and blocked, shoving his leg away and throwing off his balance. The Harpy slashed her talons across his chest, knocking him back.

She spread her wings and leapt towards him. Beating her wings, she raised her legs and thrust her feet forward. Ryu grabbed her ankles and braced his feet as she pushed him back. Grunting with effort, he spun the Harpy mage around and let go, sending her tumbling through the air. She crashed down on the hood of a parked car.

Groaning, the monster rolled off and slowly stood up. Adrian raised his fists, but the Harpy raised her arm and pointed it in another direction, launching a barrage of feathers at the unprotected businessman.

Ryu gasped in surprise and leapt in front of the attack. It slammed against his chest armor, which sparked with each impact. The Rider quickly grabbed Meth's tail and wings placing them together in Dagger mode. The harpy raised both of her arms and launched a larger burst of feathers. Swinging his dagger wildly, Adrian managed to deflect several of the feathers, but the rest slammed into his armor. The Rider cried out in pain and dropped to one knee, gasping.

The mage scoffed in amusement as she placed her palms together. An orb of sky blue energy appeared in her hands. The mage spread her arms and the orb went flying forwards, spinning and bouncing in a random pattern. As the orb reached the kneeling Rider, a loud roar sounded and Korthin jumped in front of the blast. He hit the side of the orb and hovered there, pushing back against it.

Shocked, Adrian hesitated a moment, prompting Meth to exclaim. "What are you waiting for?"

"Flare up!" the dragon belt announced as Ryu pushed the legs down and it released a small ball of fire. The ball landed on his dagger and enveloped the blade. Ryu swung it through the energy ball and it exploded.

Korthin grunted as the explosion propelled him through the air. He hit the ground and bounced across it. He groaned.

"Are you all right?" Adrian asked.

"He'll be fine; let's get that winged pain in the tail!" Meth growled.

Ryu pulled the dagger apart and reformed it in Gun mode. He raised the weapon and pulled the trigger. The fire blasts struck their target exploding against her scant armor. She screamed in pain and spun around, leaping skyward.

Korthin opened his mouth and spat out the crystalline tongue inside. Ryu caught and pushed it into the Element Slot. "Energize! Earth Form!"

A yellow ball of earth magic shot from the crystal hovered up to Ryu's forehead and spread over his armor, turning it yellow and bronze. Flames swept across the lenses of his mask turning them orange.

The Rider grabbed the nearest object in reach, a fire hydrant and ripped it out of the ground. He turned and hurled it at the bird-like mage. She yelped in pain as it struck the back of her head and she crumpled in the air, dropping towards the ground. Korthin leapt into Adrian's right hand and transformed into the Earth Buckler. His mouth opened as the shield's handle was pulled back.

"Flare up!" Meth's voice announced as Ryu pushed the legs on the left side of the belt down. Once again, a small orb of fire emerged from the golden dragon mouth and hovered into Korthin's open mouth. Ryu pushed the handle in, snapping the earth dragon's mouth closed and sending a shockwave of earth magic through the weapon. He charged forward with the glowing shield drawn back, he swung it upward as the harpy neared the ground and knocked her back into the air. She exploded into a massive sky blue fireball at the top of her arc.

Adrian sighed and lowered his shield arm as feathers rained down around him. He glanced back to see the flashing lights of emergency vehicles approached.

"Looks like our work here is done," Korthin noted.

"Guess so," Adrian agreed.

* * *

(The Next Day)

Meth sat in the branches of the tree in Adrian's front yard, chewing on the carcass of a songbird. He was picking flecks of meat from his claws when the branch sagged, announcing Korthin's presence.

"What do you want?" Meth asked.

"I just wanted to say I saw you help Adrian protect that human," Korthin replied. "You didn't have to do that."

"Of course, I did," Meth said. "I need Adrian to help me fight the mages. He can't do that if he's sliced apart by feathers."

"You could have pulled him to the side," Korthin pointed out. "I know we're not completely mobile in our alternate modes."

Meth shrugged and turned back to his meal.

"I knew we weren't so different," Korthin said, thumping his tail against Meth's back. The fire dragon gulped loudly as his mouthful of meat went down the wrong tube.

"Don't. Ever. Do. That. Again," Meth hissed.

"Do what?"

* * *

(Unknown Time and Place)

The small green dragon whipped his head around wildly. He thought he had heard the soft clank of metallic boot steps against rock. He froze completely, trying to listen over the howling wind.

An armored figure raised his crossbow-like weapon aiming at the reptile several feet away. He squeezed the trigger and a green blast launched from the bow shooting towards the dragon's exposed back.


	11. Episode 11: The Archer's Trap

Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Kamen Rider. Ryu and his supporting characters all belong to me.

Episode 11

The Archer's Trap

_Ryu pushed the handle in, snapping the earth dragon's mouth closed and sending a shockwave of earth magic through the weapon. He charged forward with the glowing shield drawn back, he swung it upward as the harpy neared the ground and knocked her back into the air. She exploded into a massive sky blue fireball at the top of her arc. _

_Adrian sighed and lowered his shield arm as feathers rained down around him. _

"_Looks like our work here is done," Korthin noted. _

"_Guess so," Adrian agreed. _

* * *

The jeep pulled to the side of the road and the driver and a single passenger stepped out. They stood and glanced around. A few feet in front of them stood the burned out shell of a bar.

The driver nodded at the passenger. He stepped forward, towering over his companion. His hair was dark red. He inhaled loudly. "Scent's faint."

"I don't care how faint the scent is," the shorter man snapped. "Just tell me you can follow it."

The passenger scowled in the darkness and sniffed again. "All right, I've got his scent."

"Lead the way," his companion ordered.

"You said we'd get something to eat first-."

The driver moved fast, his hand wrapped around the larger man's neck and hoisted him into the air. "I changed my mind. Right now, I'm in the mood to hunt."

The passenger's eyes flashed a deep crimson color. He reached his hand up to grab his partner's arm. The shorter man sighed and casually tossed the giant to the side first.

"Keep in mind, I can easily get a new bloodhound," he stepped over to his companion and placed a foot on his chest, pinning him against the sidewalk. "After all, I've gone through three already, but I'd rather not waste any time finding a new one. Okay?"

The pinned mage nodded.

"I'm glad we understand each other," he removed his foot and turned back to the jeep. Opening the rear door, he pulled out a small steel cage. A dark green dragon hunched over in the middle of the cage, staring down at the floor. A pair of small legs supported the back of his body, while he supported the upper half up with his wings, lacking front legs. A pair of long silver horns stretched from the back of his head. His wing membrane was a paler silver. A triangle formed at the end of his long tail. His snout was long and crocodile-like.

"Ah, poor little guy looks lonely," the driver laughed without mirth. "I guess that's bound to happen when someone wipes out your whole village."

The dragon turned his head upwards and hissed at him. The mage raised a hand to the cage. A flash of green light exploded from his palm and slammed the dragon back against the bars.

* * *

"Wait a second, you like rock music?"

Meth nodded. "Duh, why is it so surprising that I like any kind of music?"

They sat on the floor of the living room. Mandy sat across from Adrian and spread out between them was their project for school. Meth stood to Adrian's right, while Korthin sat on the couch and listened to the music blaring from the stereo. Adrian's aunt and uncle had gone out to enjoy a romantic dinner.

"I figured since you lived in the forest that dragons wouldn't know any about human music," Adrian replied.

"Not true," Meth said. "We civilized dragons would keep an eye on what happened in the surrounding human cities. Occasionally, we'd hear about unusual occurrences that would lead us to mages."

"Fascinating," Mandy said. "But can we get back to our science project?"

The window over the TV set shattered. The two humans yelled in fright and placed their hands over their heads as glass rained down. Korthin leapt off the couch and hid behind Mandy.

"We're being attacked!" Meth exclaimed.

"No, someone probably just lost a baseball," Adrian said.

A flash of green light shot through the shattered window and struck the back of the couch. It passed through it and presumably struck the wall behind it.

"It's a mage!" Korthin shouted.

"Obviously!" Meth snapped.

"How did it know where I live?" Adrian asked.

"Let's go ask it," Meth suggested. He crawled towards Adrian and leapt on top of his belly, before unfolding and wrapping around his waist as the Ryu belt.

* * *

(Outside)

The mage stood on the sidewalk, green metal crossbow pointed towards the window. Green armor covered him from head to toe. His helmet possessed a vague falcon shape to it. He stood absolutely still, listening with inhuman senses for his prey.

The jeep sat behind him, his bloodhound leaning against the passenger door. He looked quite bored with his companion's handiwork.

The house door swung open and a cloud of fire poured from it, fading to reveal Adrian, a flaming dragon head lowering over his face to form his helmet. The Archer mage snapped his fingers as Adrian charged across the lawn towards him.

Moving to intercept, the second mage glowed brown and his form shifted. Dark brown fur covered everything except his face, hands, and feet. His face took on a more primate-like appearance. He swung up a massive foot and struck Adrian in the chest.

The blow knocked him to the ground, but he quickly rolled back to his feet. The mage stepped forward and swung a fist at his head. Adrian raised his arms and blocked before knocking the mage's arm to the side and punching him in the chest. A kick followed then a punch sent the mage flying backwards.

"All right, that's enough," Ryu glanced over at the jeep to find the Archer standing behind it with a steel cage in one hand. His other hand held the crossbow up to the cage's occupant.

"Is that…"

"A storm dragon?" Meth finished.

"Yep," the Archer mage replied. "Probably the last one in existence since I wiped out his village."

"You slime ball," Adrian growled, taking a step forward.

"Ah!" the mage waved his crossbow. "Take another step and the storm dragons go extinct."

Korthin exploded from the ground at the mage's feet, flying towards his chest. The mage moved his crossbow and fired, a green burst of magic knocked the earth dragon back. At the same moment, Adrian reached for Meth's tail and wings. He attached them together and pushed the wings forward before aiming. Unfortunately, the mage was faster. A bolt from his crossbow knocked the gun out of his hand. He squeezed the trigger and three more bolts struck Ryu in the chest. His armor sparked as the blasts knocked him to the ground.

"Now, now," the mage waved his weapon arm from side to side. "I don't want to just finish you off like this. I believe you should have a sporting chance to save your helpless comrade. I'll leave him cage and all at Gordon's Cave. If you want to save your fellow dragon, all you have to do is get to the cave before midnight."

"Don't do it!" the caged dragon shouted. "You'll be playing right into his trap."

The mage chuckled. "That's right. I'll be waiting for you in the woods."

Adrian pushed himself back to his feet and glared at him. He glanced down at the storm dragon then back at the mage's face. "You won't have to wait long."

Smirking, the mage backed toward the jeep. His companion followed. As the Archer slid the cage back into the vehicle, Adrian dived for his gun. The mage turned and launched a barrage of energy blasts from the crossbow. The massive attack struck Ryu and Korthin, exploding against them. Adrian fell unto the grass, Meth dropping to the ground at his feet.

"Maybe you should consider your safety over this dragon's, eh?" the mage chuckled as he reverted to his human appearance, a short man with light brown hair. His partner changed back as well. They climbed into the jeep.

Adrian groaned and tried to stand up as the vehicle started. The tires squealed as the mage pulled away from the curb and sped down the street. Meth slammed a front paw into the grass. "Damn!"

The trio pushed themselves off the ground and quickly headed back into the house.

Mandy thundered down the stairs, baseball bat in hand. Her panicked gaze swept over all three of them.

"Are you guys okay?"

They murmured their assurance that they were. Retreating into the kitchen, the humans sat around the table while the dragons jumped on top of it. Adrian quickly filled Mandy in on their encounter with the mage.

"So he massacred an entire dragon village?" Mandy asked. "Just like that black knight did?"

Meth nodded. "He's one of the mage's dragon hunters. I think I've heard of him. They call him the Emerald Hunter or Hunter for short. Supposedly he's the greatest marksman among the mages."

"I can believe that," Korthin muttered.

"Well, we can't beat him on his own terms," Adrian said.

"Yeah, not with the way you shoot," Meth agreed.

"So we need to outsmart him," he continued. "First, I need to figure out just where Gordon's Cave is."

"I know where it is," the red dragon said. "It used to be the entrance to the fire dragon village…"

Adrian wondered if it was a coincidence that the mage had chosen such a location.

"Okay, so you know the ground," Korthin said. "Probably better than Hunter does, even if he scouted the area ahead of time."

"Despite what he says I doubt he'd leave the storm dragon unguarded," Meth frowned. "The brute will probably be guarding the cave."

"We definitely can't beat both of them at the same time," Adrian pointed out. "We need to distract Hunter so he can beat the other mage and free the storm dragon."

"I can distract him," Korthin said.

"How?" the others asked.

The earth dragon quickly told them his plan. They took a moment to consider other options before deciding to go with his idea.

"Now what about your aunt and uncle?" Mandy asked.

Adrian stared at her with a blank expression. "What about them?"

"What if they get home before you finish this little rescue mission?" she asked. "You'll get in trouble. Maybe even grounded."

"Grounded?" Meth repeated incredulously. "This is war, women! We don't have time to worry about getting grounded!"

Adrian gently smacked Meth upside the head. "I'll just have to hope it doesn't take that long."

"What about the smashed window and the holes?" Mandy asked.

"I'll tell them we went to the library for our project and when I got back the place looked like it'd been shot up," Adrian said, a little shocked at how quickly he managed to come up with the lie. He felt guilty and considered telling the truth instead.

"Can we go now?" Meth asked.

Adrian nodded and stood up. The group stepped out of the house and entered the garage. Adrian pulled the tarp off his uncle's old bike and Meth spat a small ball of fire at it. Flames covered the machine as it transformed into its enchanted shape. The two dragons leapt unto the back of the machine as Adrian pulled on his helmet.

* * *

He rode toward the mountains. As they neared the forest, Meth took off and soared over the trees. He returned a few minutes later and informed them that he hadn't seen anything through the trees.

Feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, Adrian ducked low on the bike and leaned it to the side. A bolt of green magic soared over his head and exploded against a tree on the other side of the road.

The bike screeched to a stop, facing the direction of the shot's origin. Adrian stared into the woods, but couldn't see anything.

Meth wrapped around his waist as more shots launched out of the trees. Korthin leapt over his shoulder and deflected the blasts with his body. The earth dragon hit the ground and grunted in pain.

"Henshin!" Adrian dismounted his bike and pushed Meth's horns together. Flaming wings emerged from his back and wrapped around him. More bolts shot from the forest, but bounced off the cloud of fire around Adrian. The fire solidified into armor as a dragon head lowered over the human's and formed his helmet.

"Mess with me and you're going to get burnt!" Adrian shouted as he leapt off the road and into the forest.

The shots ceased for a moment as Adrian ran deeper into the woods, glancing around for Hunter. He cried out as a blast struck him in the shoulder. He spun around and found the Archer mage standing several feet away with his crossbow raised.

He pulled the trigger, but Adrian ducked behind a tree. Constructing his gun, Adrian leapt out from his cover and fired a bullet of fire magic at the mage. A glowing arrow struck it out of the air before it reached its target. Ryu gasped and squeezed the trigger, sending burst after burst at the mage. The crossbow returned fire, each blast shooting through several of Adrian's before one struck him in the chest. His armor sparked as he cried out in pain.

Hunter chuckled and aimed for the Rider's head. A cloud of dust exploded in front of the mage. He gasped in surprise as the cloud blinded him. A second later, something slammed into his shoulder and knocked him to the side. He grunted as he bounced off a rock.

"Let's go!" Meth exclaimed as another blast of dust exploded out of the ground. Korthin leapt out of the dirt and dived back into it, creating another explosion of dust. Ryu turned and charged into the trees.

* * *

(Gordon's Cave)

The large mage sat in the cave's entrance. From there he could see if anyone tried to scale the small piece of cliff below the entrance, but his attention focused on his prisoner. The storm dragon stared out at the sky. His expression was hard to read.

"Think they'll come for you?" the mage sneered.

The dragon continued to stare out into space.

"I doubt it," he continued. "Why would they rescue a member of a village that got exterminated so easily?"

The dragon blinked and its head drooped down.

The mage chuckled and continued. "How long did it take Hunter to finish them all off? About four hours after he found the cave?"

"How long would it take him to kill you?" the dragon asked. "Six seconds?"

Rage replaced the sneer on the mage's face as he stood up and kicked the dragon's cage, sending it rolling backwards into the cavern. "Want to see how long it takes me to kill you?"

He stepped after the cage and stood over it. His form glowed and fur covered his body. A club appeared in his right hand.

The clank of steel tapping stone sounded behind him and he turned to find Ryu standing there, tapping his dagger against the cave wall.

"So you got past Hunter?" the Sasquatch asked. He turned and rested his club over his shoulder.

"Looks that way," Ryu replied.

The mage roared and dashed at him. Ryu jumped to the side, barely avoiding a swing of his club. The weapon slammed against the wall and cracked the rock. Ryu slashed his dagger across his enemy's side as he stepped past.

Both opponents spun to face each other, Ryu grunted as the club slammed into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. A second whack from the club sent him flying back into the chamber. He landed next to the storm dragon's cage.

"Quick! Get me out of here!" he exclaimed.

Adrian grunted and rolled over. He raised his dagger and brought it down on the cage, slicing a hole in the side of it. A hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back up before he could widen the cut. Fortunately, the opening was wide enough for the dragon to squeeze through.

The Sasquatch mage spun him around and raised his club, but the storm dragon flew over Ryu's head and towards the mage's face. He spat a bolt of purple lightning straight into the creature's nose. He screamed in pain and leapt back.

"Thanks," Adrian said. "My name's Adrian. The fire dragon is Meth."

"Torinidus," the storm dragon said as he circled around the Rider. "Would you like to see just what a storm dragon is capable of?"

"You bet I would," Adrian said.

The Sasquatch roared and charged forward, but Adrian tossed his dagger at him, striking him in the chest. The wound sparked and the mage stumbled backwards.

Torinidus opened his mouth and a green dragon tongue shaped like his head hovered out. It landed in Adrian's hand and he pushed it into the element slot. He pulled the legs on the right side of his belt back and the dragon head extended out of the armor.

"Energize! Storm Form!" It released a ball of green light from its mouth, which swirled around Ryu. The ball stirred up a small gust of wind and the red color of his armor seemed to be blown aside and replaced with dark green. The gold bits changed silver as bolts of purple lightning crashed down around him. Flames moved over the lenses of his mask turning them purple. The electricity struck the dragon head on the back of his right hand. The bolt morphed the head into one more resembling the storm dragon's crocodilian head.

"All right!" Ryu said slamming a fist into his palm. He leapt at the mage and threw a punch. It connected with the creature's chest, but the mage didn't budge. Adrian blinked beneath his helmet and threw another punch only for this one to go unfelt as well. The mage swung his club and knocked the Rider back.

"You can't fight like that in Storm form!" Torinidus' voice exclaimed from the belt. The dragon's body flew over to Ryu.

The body's tail and wings flipped downwards, half of the tail folding up into the wings, leaving a little space between the base of the tail and the end of the wings. The dragon stretched its neck forward and a barrel extended out of its body beneath its neck. Finally, its legs rotated up to become the gun's hammer. Ryu reached out and grabbed the gun's handle formed from the lower half of its tail.

The mage charged at him, swinging its club around threateningly. Ryu raised his new weapon and pulled the trigger. A purple blast of energy shot from the gun barrel and struck the mage in the chest. He howled in pain as the blast exploded in a shower of sparks. Ryu stepped forward, firing another shot. It struck the mage and he stumbled back. Adrian continued to advance, forcing the mage back with his shots.

"Ah!" the Sasquatch exclaimed as it found itself teetering on the edge of the cave mouth.

Adrian spun around and slammed a kick into his chest. The blow wasn't particularly strong when compared with the power of Flame Form, but it was enough to knock the mage over the edge. He fell to the ground and landed with a soft thud.

Ryu leapt after him, but he overestimated his jump. It carried him several feet and he landed in front of the mage rather than behind it as he'd planned to. He didn't worry though; he'd landed well out of club range.

He prepared to spin around, but movement in the trees caught his attention. Hunter emerged from the forest, walking towards him, carrying his crossbow in one hand and the tail of Korthin's unconscious body in the other.

Adrian gasped in surprise. His fists shook with anger, almost so much that he didn't notice the shaking of his gun. It took his confused mind a moment to figure out why the transformed dragon might be shaking. Torinidus was scared.

Hunter raised his crossbow and Adrian followed suite, bringing up his gun…


	12. Episode 12: Eye of the Storm

Disclaimer: Don't own Kamen Rider, never have, never will. Ryu and its assorted characters belong to me though.

Episode 12

Eye of the Storm

_Torinidus opened his mouth and a green dragon tongue shaped like his head hovered out. It landed in Adrian's hand and he pushed it into the element slot. He pulled the legs on the right side of his belt back and the dragon head extended out of the armor._

_"Energize! Storm Form!" It released a ball of green light from its mouth, which swirled around Ryu. The ball stirred up a small gust of wind and the red color of his armor seemed to be blown aside and replaced with dark green. The gold bits changed silver as bolts of purple lightning crashed down around him. Flames moved over the lenses of his mask turning them purple. The electricity struck the dragon head on the back of his right hand. The bolt morphed the head into one more resembling the storm dragon's crocodilian head._

_The mage charged at him, swinging its club around threateningly. Ryu raised his new weapon and pulled the trigger. A purple blast of energy shot from the gun barrel and struck the mage in the chest. He howled in pain as the blast exploded in a shower of sparks. Ryu stepped forward firing another shot. It struck the mage and he stumbled back. Adrian continued to advance, forcing the mage back with his shots._

_Adrian spun around and slammed a kick into his chest. The blow wasn't particularly strong when compared with the power of Flame Form, but it was enough to knock the mage over the edge. He fell to the ground and landed with a soft thud._

_Ryu leapt after him._

_He prepared to spin around, but movement in the trees caught his attention. Hunter emerged from the forest, carrying his crossbow in one hand and the tail of Korthin's unconscious body in the other._

_Adrian gasped in surprise. His fists shook with anger, almost so much that he didn't notice the shaking of his gun. It took his confused mind a moment to figure out why the transformed dragon might be shaking. Torinidus was scared._

_Hunter raised his crossbow and Adrian followed suit, bringing up his gun… _the Rider and mage fired, the blasts of magic shooting past each other and striking their targets. Adrian exclaimed loudly as he fell to the ground.

The archer mage hissed in annoyance and raised his bow. Ryu gasped and rolled backwards, a green arrow struck the ground behind him. He leapt to the side, avoiding another arrow. The jump carried him towards the top of a tree. Once again, he wasn't prepared for the extent of his jump and slammed into a branch. He quickly wrapped his arms around the tree limb and pulled himself onto it.

"Running away?" Hunter asked, approaching the tree's roots. He raised his crossbow and fired, but his target dropped backwards, hanging from the branch by his knees for a moment before letting go and flipping around to land facing him. Ryu squeezed the trigger and a flash of purple magic struck the mage in the chest.

The Sasquatch mage roared and flung its club at the Rider. Ryu moved his gun to the side and held down the trigger, a blast of wind shot from the gun barrel, blowing the club backwards. The weapon slammed into its owner's face.

"Hey, pay attention to both your enemies!" Meth shouted.

The warning came too late. As Adrian turned his attention back to the first mage, a barrage of green arrows sailed towards him. He screamed in pain as they slammed into his armor, creating a shower of sparks wherever they hit.

Hunter laughed and leapt toward him, swinging up a leg as he did. An armored foot struck Adrian in the side of the head and sent him flying to the side. He crashed into a boulder and dropped to the ground.

Ryu groaned and pushed himself up to his knees. The dragon in his right hand twitched and pulled free of his grip, transforming back into its normal form.

"Is that all you have?" Hunter advanced on the kneeling Rider, crossbow raised and aimed.

"Quit playing with them and finish it!" the Sasquatch mage called, rubbing his head.

Torinidus glanced between the two mages and Adrian. His tail flicked back and forth. "I'm sorry!" The storm dragon turned and leapt past the human, the green dragon tongue ejected from the Element Slot and the dragon snatched it up in his jaws before vanishing into the forest. Adrian groaned and slouched forward, suddenly his armor felt much heavier.

"Come back here you coward!" Meth exclaimed.

Adrian tapped the right side of his belt and a cloud of fire surrounded him. "Blaze on! Flame form!"

"Too slow!" Hunter exclaimed, firing his crossbow.

An engine roared and the Rider's red and gold bike flew out of the bushes. It hit the ground and swerved, coming to a stop in front of its owner. The arrow struck the side of it and bounced off.

"You've better retreat and get some rest," Meth said.

Adrian wanted to disagree, but that blow to the head had left him dazed. He stood up and swung a leg over the bike. The Sasquatch mage leapt at him, but the bike sped forward. Hunter fired a shot at the Rider, but Adrian ducked. The motorcycle disappeared over the top of a small hill. The archer leapt onto the top of the incline and fired after the retreating figure. The first couple missed, but then one connected with the Rider's shoulder and the bike wobbled for a few feet. Chuckling, the mage lined up a shot with the back of Ryu's head.

Pain shot through his side and the mage's shot went wild. He glanced down to find Korthin awake with his mouth clamped down on his gut. He growled and slammed an elbow down on the dragon, knocking him loose. The earth dragon landed on his back and rolled over, the mage's foot pressed down on him.

"Looks they escaped," the Sasquatch mage noted, walking up behind his companion.

"Shut up, idiot!" Hunter backhanded the mage and sent him rolling down the hill. "They'll come back to rescue their ally and then we'll-."

The mage's leg collapsed into the ground. He groaned and pulled his leg free of the hole. He glanced around, looking for some sign of the burrowing earth dragon.

"Damn it!" Hunter exclaimed, blasting a rock with his crossbow. "Find that earth dragon, I don't care if you have to steal a backhoe to do it, but find that dragon!"

* * *

Adrian groaned as he dismounted the bike. Meth unclipped from his waist and retracted into his dragon form. The human collapsed to one knee while the dragon clung to the trunk of a nearby tree.

"Can you make it back to the city?" Meth asked.

"We can't leave without Korthin," Adrian said.

"You won't be any help to him if you're dead," the fire dragon huffed. He leapt off the tree and glided forwards. "Follow me."

Sighing, Adrian grabbed the bike's handlebars and pushed it after the dragon. Meth glanced back to make sure he followed then flew onward.

"Where are we going?" Adrian asked.

The dragon ignored his question and continued flying. Both of them kept glancing around for signs of either the mages or Torinidus.

"Here we are," Meth said, landing on a small ledge jutting out of the mountainside. Adrian glanced around, expecting to see a cave opening somewhere in the rock. He was about to say something when a scraping sound reached his ears. The lower half of the cliff in front of him slid to the side, leaving an opening big enough for a human to crawl through.

Meth dropped to the ground and walked through the opening. Adrian ducked down and followed him. He felt around inside, expecting to find himself in a tunnel, but his hands instead found nothing. He felt for a ceiling and found none so he slowly pushed himself up, finding the room big enough to stand in.

He heard a rush of flames and a moment later, fire began spreading through a raised platform that ran around the room. The flickering light blinded Adrian and it took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust.

After they did, he glanced around the room. Rock formed the walls while the floor was soft earth. Lying on the ground was an assortment of nests made from what he guessed was animal fur of some kind. A set of red dragon-shaped armor stood in the center of the room.

"Meth, what is this place?" Adrian asked.

"A fallout shelter," he replied. "A place we could retreat to if the mages attacked the village."

The place looked undisturbed, as if no one had ever used it.

"It had some other uses, too," Meth continued. He flew towards a square indentation in the wall, upon which rested several books, human-sized books. "We knew the mages were trying to wipe out all traces of us, so we've left records of our existence here. I'm not quite sure why the elders cared to leave behind proof of our existence when they spent so much time keeping it secret."

"What's the armor for?" Adrian asked, eyeing the ornate suit.

Meth shrugged. "Just some useless decoration. Dragons don't really need armor you know."

Adrian glanced back at the shelf. "Anything else there, or is just history?"

"No, there's some stuff on magic that we might find useful," the dragon replied with a smirk.

* * *

The mage muttered angrily as he stalked through the forest. His sense of smell couldn't pick up anything from a burrowing earth dragon; his only hope was to listen for the sounds of burrowing.

Wishing he didn't have that arrogant archer bossing him around, the mage sat on a stump and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Taking a break?" a voice asked.

He glanced to the side and grunted in elation when he spotted the yellow head of an earth dragon peering out of the ground. A dark brown glow surrounded him as he transformed into the Sasquatch mage. Raising its massive club, the mage growled and slammed it down.

Korthin ducked back into the hole and burrowed forward, going under the mage and getting behind him. He shot out of the ground and flew at the creature's back. The mage spun around, swinging his weapon. Korthin twisted around, placing his feet against the club and pushing off. Inhaling, the earth dragon spat three balls of yellow magic at the mage, striking its head and shoulders.

A green arrow flew out of the trees and struck the dragon, it pierced his chest and struck a tree, pinning Korthin to it. He pulled at the arrow, only to grunt in pain when it didn't budge.

"Perfect," Hunter chuckled as he raised his crossbow and slung it over his shoulder. "I knew a brash earth dragon wouldn't be able to pass up such an easy target."

"Yeah?" the Sasquatch growled. "Why don't you try being the bait next time?"

The archer just laughed, his good spirits restored. "Don't worry; now that we got our bait back, all you have to do is keep your ears open."

His eyes wondered over to a bush. Torinidus ducked into the leaves and waited for the mage to look away before turning and flying away. He glanced around and sniffed the air, picking up the scent of dragon magic. The strong scent led him through the trees to its source. He paused and examined the cliff. He could sense the power coming from the rocks, almost feel it crackling over his scales. Suddenly the sensation faded and Torinidus blinked in confusion.

The stone in front of him slid to the side and he leapt back as Meth stepped out of the open tunnel. Adrian came crawling after him.

"Oh, so you're back now?" Meth glared at the storm dragon.

Torinidus glanced at the ground; words failed him for a moment. "I'm sorry, but the situation was hopeless. I thought Hunter would kill us all."

"Yet we all got away," Meth mused.

"He wiped out my entire village while I was helpless to do anything!" the dragon growled. "You don't know what it's like…"

For a few seconds the only sounds came from Adrian as he pulled himself the rest of the way out of the hole. Then Meth launched himself at Torinidus, the two dragons hit the ground, clawing and biting at each other.

"I don't know what it's like?" Meth asked as he clawed his opponent's belly. "Have you seen any other fire dragons around here? Huh?"

"Whoa! That's enough," Adrian said, grabbing the dragons and pulling them apart. He held both of them off the ground, Meth continued struggling and trying to get his claws on the storm dragon. "Meth, have you ever met a dragon you didn't attack?"

Meth didn't reply. Instead, he stared at Adrian's shoe. The human sighed and let go of Torinidus, who flew up and landed on a tree branch.

"Sorry about him," Adrian said. "He's very single-minded."

The fire dragon snorted. "Are we doing to go rescue dust butt or what?"

"You mean that earth dragon?"

"Yes," Adrian said, setting Meth down on his shoulder.

"He's over in that direction," Torinidus nodded his head. "But both of the mages are there."

"Well, we better get moving then," Adrian said, he stepped towards his bike and paused to glance back up at the dragon. "Are you coming?"

"It's too dangerous," Torinidus said, glancing away.

Meth scoffed. "It's thanks to him that you're even free now. You could at least return to the favor."

Adrian sighed. "Leave him alone, Meth. His mind's made up."

Torinidus gazed at the sky as he heard the bike's engine start and shoot off into the distance.

* * *

An arrow exploded beside the bike's front tire. Adrian gasped and swerved to the side just in time to dodge another projectile.

"That bastard's not wasting any time," Meth said, leaping off Adrian's shoulder and flying in front of the bike. He dropped back and unfolded into the Ryu belt, clipping around Adrian's waist as more arrows shot towards them. Adrian raised an arm in front of his chest.

"Henshin!"

He pushed the dragon's horns together and two flaming wings erupted from his back, lowering over the front of the bike and incinerating a barrage of arrows. Adrian tapped the button on top of the belt buckle and the wings pulled back, wrapping his form in flames.

Hunter gasped as he saw the motorcycle closing the distance. He leapt to the side, dodging the vehicle. The bike skidded to a stop, the flames around Ryu blowing out to reveal his armor. The Kamen Rider dismounted his bike and faced the mage. "Mess with my friends and you're going to get burnt."

Leaping out of the bushes, the Sasquatch mage roared and swung its club. Ryu ducked under it and kicked the mage in the back, knocking him over. He spun to face Hunter and an arrow slammed into his chest. Adrian groaned and rolled over the seat of his bike, avoiding another arrow.

"Adrian!" Korthin exclaimed.

His gaze locked onto the source of the sound, finding the earth dragon pinned to a tree by a glowing green arrow. He started toward him, only for the Sasquatch mage to slide into his way. Adrian ducked under a club swing and punched the mage in the gut. He grunted and doubled over.

"Take this!" Hunter exclaimed, firing a barrage of green magic from his crossbow. At the same moment, the other mage recovered and lunged. Ryu leapt over the Sasquatch mage, the barrage of arrows slammed into its brown fur.

"You idiot, get out of my way!" the archer mage snapped.

Whining in pain, the Sasquatch mage raised its head and clenched its fists before charging at Hunter.

"What are you doing?" Hunter asked as he approached. He raised his crossbow, but the mage batted it to the side and slammed a fist into his shoulder, knocking him back.

Adrian scurried over to Korthin and knelt over the dragon. He carefully reached toward the arrow. "What do we do? Is it safe to pull it out?"

"I don't know," Meth replied. Korthin gave the red dragon a panicked look.

"If you touch it, it'll explode," Ryu glanced up as Torinidus swooped down and land beside him.

"Can you get it out?" Adrian asked.

Torinidus crept forward and sniffed at the arrow. "I think so…"

The mage roared as he swung his club, Hunter ducked and dodged around the blows, barely managing to avoid them before one hit him in the chest and knocked him back. He hit the ground and rolled across it, coming up on one knee. Raising his bow, he fired several arrows at the Sasquatch, which it only swatted to the side with its club.

"Damn it," Hunter hissed as he stepped back. His form shimmered before fading from sight.

The berserk mage roared and spun around, looking for his tormentor. It spotted Ryu, crouched over Korthin and watching as Torinidus carefully drew out the arrow. It raised his club and lumbered towards them.

"Uh-oh," Ryu said glancing back.

"Keep him busy!" Torinidus said, his wings wrapped around the arrow shaft and pulling on it. "I can't stop now."

Adrian stood up and spun around, grabbing Meth's tail and wings. He assembled them into dagger mode and twisted the Flare Valve on the left side of his belt up. He pushed the legs on it, pushing out a golden dragon head that released a ball of fire.

"Flare Up!"

The Sasquatch swung its club down as Ryu raised his dagger. The blade stabbed into the wood and stuck there. The mage grunted and twisted around, trying to dislodge the weapon, while Adrian hung onto it. The ball of fire hovered up to the dagger's base and flames shot over the blade. Ryu yanked it loose, slicing through the club. The mage swung his club again, but Ryu blocked, his dagger setting the weapon ablaze. He swung the dagger through the club, which exploded into fragments of charred, flaming wood.

Torinidus sighed and inhaled deeply, the arrow was almost out, but this next part was the trickiest. Opening his mouth, he released a small green tornado of wind magic, it swirled around the arrow as the storm dragon made on last tug on it. Korthin roared in pain as the arrow came free. The tornado sent it spinning several feet away before it exploded. Torinidus sighed as the earth dragon slumped back against the tree.

Ryu ducked under a punch, but a second fist slammed into his chest, several more blows hit him before a kick knocked him into the air. He hit the ground and rolled back towards the two dragons.

"Is he all right?" Adrian asked, staring at an unmoving Korthin.

The storm dragon nodded. "He's just unconscious. I don't suppose you need some help?"

"No, we're fine," Meth snapped.

"Maybe a little bit of help," Adrian said. He placed a hand over his belt buckle, muffling Meth's protests.

Torinidus opened his mouth and dropped the Storm Tongue into Adrian's hand. The Rider rolled over and stood up, facing the mage. He slammed the jewel into the Element Slot and pulled the legs back.

"Energize! Storm Form!"

A ball of green light circled around Ryu, kicking up a small twister around him. The red color of his armor swept aside, replaced with dark green as bolts of purple lightning crashed around him. Flames moved across the lenses of his mask turning them purple.

Ryu jumped and flew over his opponent's head. He hit the ground in a roll and spun around, raising his arm. Torinidus dropped into his hand, converting into Gun mode. He raised the weapon and fired, the projectiles struck the mage, releasing a small shower of sparks.

"Let me try aiming," Torinidus' voice sounded from the Ryu belt.

"You try?" Adrian repeated in confusion.

The mage roared and charged forward. Ryu gasped as the gun in his hands tugged forward and leveled itself at the mage. Adrian pulled the trigger and the blast of purple magic struck the mage in the neck, creating a massive explosion of sparks. The gun moved again, aiming at the mage's feet. Adrian pulled the trigger and blasted the mage's leg causing it to crash face first into the ground a few feet from him.

"Let's finish it," Adrian said, hitting the leg-like levers on the Flare Valve.

"Flare Up!" the belt announced.

Ryu pulled the hammer on the Storm Pistol back, opening the dragon mouth at the end of the gun barrel. A ball of fire shot from the Flare Valve and dropped into the pistol's open mouth.

The Sasquatch slowly stood up and lumbered forward. Ryu lowered his gun, a purple glow shining from the dragon's maw. The mage charged, nearly reaching the Rider before a massive blast of wind sent him flying. The mage flailed its limbs as the gust carried it back. Ryu pulled the trigger and a purple lightning bolt shot from the gun, the front of it took the shape of a dragon's head as it flew toward the flailing mage. The blast struck, flying through the target's chest. The creature hung suspended by the wind for a moment before it exploded into a brown fireball.


	13. Episode 13: Storm Clouds

Disclaimer: I don't own Kamen Rider. Ryu and assorted supporting characters belong to me.

Episode 13

Storm Clouds

_The mage roared and charged forward. Ryu gasped as the gun in his hands tugged forward and leveled itself at the mage. Adrian pulled the trigger and the blast of purple magic struck the mage in the neck, creating a massive explosion of sparks. The gun moved again, aiming at the mage's feet. Adrian pulled the trigger and blasted the mage's leg causing it to crash face first into the ground a few feet from him._

_"Let's finish it," Adrian said, hitting the leg-like levers on the Flare Valve._

_"Flare Up!" the belt announced._

_Ryu pulled the hammer on the Storm Pistol back, opening the dragon mouth at the end of the gun barrel. A ball of fire shot from the Flare Valve and dropped into the pistol's open mouth._

_The Sasquatch slowly stood up and lumbered forward. Ryu lowered his gun, a purple glow shining from the dragon's maw. The mage charged, nearly reaching the Rider before a massive blast of wind sent him flying. The mage flailed its limbs as the gust carried it back. Ryu pulled the trigger and a purple lightning bolt shot from the gun, the front of it took the shape of a dragon's head as it flew toward the flailing mage. The blast struck, flying through the target's chest. The creature hung suspended by the wind for a moment before it exploded into a brown fireball._

Adrian yelped in surprise as another orb of yellow earth magic flew at him. He twisted to the side avoiding it. A second orb struck him and knocked him onto his back.

"I'm not so sure this is worth it," Adrian said, raising his head.

"Sure, it is," Meth said. "You're building up your reflexes."

"Shouldn't he be practicing with the Earth Buckler?" Korthin asked. He sat on one of the crates remaining in the empty warehouse. "You've already showed him lots of stuff with fire magic. I think I should get my turn."

"He needs to master fire," Meth said.

"He'll need earth, too!" Korthin said.

"Well, it's not like you've had any formal training with earth magic to pass on!"

"Why, you-!"

Adrian sighed as the two dragons began to bicker. He walked over to the crate that Mandy sat on, flopping down next to her. Twisting the cap off a bottle of water, he watched Meth and Korthin for the first signs of physical violence.

"Where's that wind dragon?" Mandy asked. "I haven't met him yet."

She sounded disappointed and Adrian wondered if she enjoyed the weirdness that had taken over his life.

"He's spending most of his time up at a shelter we found in the mountains," Adrian said. "Meth said he's going through the books."

"And where is this shelter?" Adrian jumped to his feet at the sound of the voice.

The air shimmered and Hunter appeared, standing at the end of the warehouse. The dragons spun around and growled at the mage. The archer raised his crossbow and unleashed a bolt of magic at Meth and Korthin. They scattered in opposite directions. The fire dragon leapt at Adrian and curled around his waist.

"Stay down," Adrian told Mandy. She had already taken cover behind a crate. "Henshin."

He pushed Meth's horns together. Large fiery wings exploded from his back, alongside a red dragon head. Hunter charged at him, firing bolts from his weapon. Adrian hit the button on top of the buckle and the wings closed over him. The bolts bounced off the fiery appendages as they formed into his armor. The dragon head covered his face, becoming Ryu's helmet.

The armor flared red hot as Ryu's fist connected with Hunter's face. The mage growled. He swung his leg up, but the rider blocked. Ryu stepped forward and elbowed the mage's gut. Adrian kicked the Archer and knocked him flying backwards.

Hunter hit the wall and dropped to the ground, managing to land on his feet. He aimed his crossbow at Ryu's head.

"Where can I find that cowardly wind dragon?" the mage asked. "No one escapes from me."

"You're crazy if you think we'll tell you!" Meth growled.

"Yeah," Adrian agreed.

He reached for Meth's wings and tail as Hunter fired. The teen twisted to the side, avoiding the shot and constructing his gun. Ryu raised the weapon and squeezed off a barrage. The fire blasts struck the surprised mage in the chest.

"Impressive," Hunter growled. "But you're still no match for me!"

A massive barrage of energy blasts launched from his crossbow. The burst struck Ryu full on exploding against his armor. He dropped to one knee as the assault ended.

"Darn it," Meth hissed. "Just when we need that windbag he's not around!"

"We'll have to make due with what we've got," Adrian said. "Korthin!"

The earth dragon exploded out of the ground at Adrian's feet. He swapped his gun into his left hand and grabbed the hovering Dragon's Tongue with his right. He pushed the jewel into the Element Slot.

"Energize! Earth Form!"

A yellow ball of light hovered up to his forehead and morphed into a cloud of dust. The dust surrounded his armor for a moment then faded to reveal the yellow and bronze earth form.

Korthin transformed into the Earth Buckler, landing in Adrian's hand. The archer mage growled and fired three arrows. Ryu blocked the projectiles with his shield. He returned fire as Hunter leapt back. The fireballs slammed into the ground, exploding against the concrete.

The mage's form shimmered and he vanished from sight. Ryu gasped and raised his gun. He scanned the warehouse, stepping back slowly. An arrow launched from the rafters. It struck Ryu in the chest and knocked him onto his back. Adrian raised his gun and fired, but the shots hit nothing.

Another arrow emerged in front of him. Korthin leapt from Adrian's hand and converted back to his true form. He spat a ball of energy at the arrow. The two attacks collided a few feet in front of the earth dragon's face. The explosion knocked him backwards.

"Korthin!" Adrian slapped the right side of his belt.

"Blaze on! Flame Form!"

A cloud of fire covered Ryu, restoring his armor to its red coloration. He fired several shots at the space the arrow had come from. A few of the blasts struck the invisible mage. Hunter reappeared, clutching his chest.

"Slipping a bit, aren't you?" Adrian asked.

The mage scoffed and raised his crossbow at the wall. He pulled the trigger and blew a hole in the building. Ryu charged forward as the mage leapt through the opening. He glanced around to find that the mage had vanished.

Meth unclipped from his waist and dropped to the ground. Ryu's armor dissolved into a cloud of flames.

Adrian exhaled and turned back to the old warehouse. "Korthin, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," the yellow dragon replied, stepping forward.

"I'm okay, too," Mandy added, her head appearing from behind a crate.

"Hunter seems to have a grudge against Torinidus," Adrian said.

"Think we should warn him?" Korthin asked.

"I'll go," Meth volunteered.

Adrian and Korthin stared at the fire dragon.

"That's a good idea," Mandy said. "Since you can fly, you can get there faster."

Adrian sighed. "I guess. Since I really need to get home, we'll let Meth go."

He knelt down and glared in the dragon's face. "But you'd better not cause any trouble."

"I won't," Meth said. "But I can't be blamed if the windbag does."

He turned and flew out of the new opening. Adrian growled in anger.

"Don't worry," Mandy said, stepping forward. "What's the worst he can do?"

Torinidus' gaze traveled over the pages laid out in front of him. His sole magical experience was with wind magic. He couldn't use fire magic, but studying other forms of magic could be helpful.

The dragon raised his head at the sound of scraping stone. He exhaled and wind filled the room, dimming the fire. Darkness covered the room.

He waited as claws clicked on the stone floor. A whooshing sound reached him and the fires sprang back to life. Torinidus relaxed as he saw the red fire dragon.

Meth frowned at him. "I'm still not used to seeing non-fire dragons in here."

"Feels strange right?" Torinidus asked. "We've lived with nobody, but our own kin all this time. The Elders were the only ones who ever bothered to meet."

"Yeah," Meth nodded.

"But now we're the last of our tribes," Torinidus continued. "I guess we owe it to our family and friends to finish what we started and wipe out the mistake our ancestor's made…"

"So you're on board now?" Meth asked.

"I guess if a half-trained warrior apprentice is, so am I," the wind dragon replied.

"How do you know about that?" Meth demanded, becoming rigid.

"I paid attention to the Elders," Torinidus replied. "They told me the dragon chosen to fight with Adrian was named Forcideus, according to a genealogy book here, he's your older brother. You're too young to be a full-fledged warrior."

"Well, I'm the only warrior left," Meth snorted.

"How much have you told Adrian?" Torinidus asked, stepping forward.

"Not much…" Meth replied, glancing to the side. "He doesn't know anything about the tribes' plans, or how important he really is to us."

The wind dragon frowned, a thoughtful expression on his face. "You'll have to tell him eventually. It will be much worse if he finds out on his own."

"Me?" the fire dragon stepped back. "Why me? You obviously know everything I do! Maybe more!"

"You're his partner aren't you?" Torinidus asked. "And you've got more courage than me. I might run away in our next battle, despite my brave words."

He lowered his head and turned away. Meth growled and leapt forward, ramming into Torinidus' back. The impact sent him rolling across the floor.

Meth raised his head. "You're not running away. I've got enough courage for both of us and we're going to get revenge on the genocidal monsters that destroyed our lives!"

The wind dragon scoffed in amusement. "I hope you're right."

"So do I," the fire dragon said. "Now, come on, let's show Hunter who the real top predators are."

Torinidus' expression became serious once again. "Right, let's do that."

Meth turned and walked toward the exit, Torinidus followed him after a few seconds hesitation. He stopped and glanced around the room before stepping outside. The entrance slid closed behind them.

A flickering black shape dropped out of a tree branch. Meth noticed it just in time to dodge to the side. He hit the ground and dug his claws into the dirt, hissing.

The creature seemed to be made of black shadow and pulsing blue flame. It was humanoid-shaped with lanky limbs, a pair of moth-like wings sprouted from its back and burned with blue fire. Two yellow orbs served as its eyes, large ears protruded from the side of its head.

"What is that thing?" Meth asked. "Some kind of mage?"

Torinidus shook his head. "It's a shadow imp, a magic construction."

The imp shrieked and leapt at the fire dragon. Meth charged forward and rammed his head into the construct's gut. The creature grunted, but grabbed hold of the dragon's horn. Growling, Meth spun around, trying to fling the imp off. The thin fingers held tight though.

A tornado of green magic launched from Torinidus' mouth as he roared. The blast struck the imp and knocked it loose. It squealed as the wind carried it across the ground.

"Take this!" Meth exclaimed, spitting a fireball. The attack struck the imp's upper body and exploded.

The imp groaned as its body swayed back in forth. It shook its head to clear it and jumped back to its feet. A blue fireball formed in its hands and it flung the orb at Meth. The flames struck Meth's shoulder and slid off harmlessly.

The shadow creature gulped as Meth grinned wickedly. The fire dragon launched another fireball as Torinidus unleashed a bolt of purple lightning. The imp screamed as the fire scorched it and then the lightning coursed through its body.

Turning around, the construct launched itself into the air. It flew fast and vanished into the forest before the two dragons could react.

Meth spun to face Torinidus. "Could Hunter make one of those?"

The wind dragon shook his head. "No, they're above even his level."

The imp gasped as it flapped through the trees. Pieces of its shadowy body fell away until it finally dropped out of the air. A gloved hand reached out and caught the creature. It gasped and pulled itself up, leaning on a thumb for support.

The hand's owner frowned as the imp's memories flashed through his mind. The hand snapped closed, crushing the spell creature into nothing but smoky traces of blue magic. The figure turned and walked away, brushing a low branch aside with his cane.


	14. Episode 14: The Archer's End

Disclaimer: I don't own any official Kamen Riders, but Ryu belongs to me. Supporting characters etc. etc. are mine too.

Episode 14

The Archer's End

_A tornado of green magic launched from Torinidus' mouth as he roared. The blast struck the imp and knocked it loose. It squealed as the wind carried it across the ground. _

"_Take this!" Meth exclaimed, spitting a fireball. The attack struck the imp's upper body and exploded._

_The imp groaned as its body swayed back in forth. It shook its head to clear it and jumped back to its feet. A blue fireball formed in its hands and it flung the orb at Meth. The flames struck Meth's shoulder and slid off harmlessly. _

_The shadow creature gulped as Meth grinned wickedly. The fire dragon launched another fireball as Torinidus unleashed a bolt of purple lightning. The imp screamed as the fire scorched it and then the lightning coursed through its body. _

_Turning around, the construct launched itself into the air. It flew fast and vanished into the forest before the two dragons could react. _

"I have failed to eliminate the wind dragon tribe," Hunter said.

The mage kneeled in human form, head bowed so low he couldn't see the other being in the dark hotel room.

"You managed to remove the creature's last stronghold," a calm voice answered. "You should not be so hard on yourself."

"But the surviving wind dragon found his way to that rider person," Hunter said.

"You will deal with the boy and his dragons," the voice said. "And I'm going to help you."

The mage's surprise showed on his face for a moment, before it became blank again. "As you wish, Archmage Vizier."

There was nothing Adrian hated more than detention. His aunt would chew him out for weeks on end when he got in trouble for fighting.

This time Gail had been in a bad mood and decided to take it out on his favorite opponent. Word in the halls was Gail had a rather crappy family life. Adrian believed the rumor, but felt very little sympathy for the guy when he came stomping toward him. This wasn't the first time, so Adrian knew what was coming. He struck first, punching Gail in the jaw as soon as he was close enough.

The giant fell against the lockers, making a loud clatter. A teacher heard the commotion and managed to push through the gathering crowd before things got any further. Both of them ended up in the principle's office, both telling similar stories. Adrian said he hit first because Gail's intentions had been clear. Gail said he'd been walking along when Adrian attacked him without warning.

Citing both of their records, the principle sent them to detention. For Adrian that meant staying late at school and not getting to hang out with Mandy. It also meant he could skip the dragon's magic lesson. He was torn between disappointment and happiness.

The three dragons balanced themselves on a tree branch and watched as the rejoicing students filed out of the school. Meth and Torinidus stretched their necks up to peer through a gap in the leaves. Korthin peered his head through the leaves, keeping his claws dug firmly into the tree bark.

"I don't see him anywhere," the earth dragon grumbled.

"Just be patient," Meth snapped. "He hasn't blown us off once yet."

They watched as the students lined up into the buses. Mandy weaved her way through the crowd and across the lawn. She stopped under the dragon's tree, leaning her back against the trunk.

"What happened to Adrian?" Torinidus asked.

"Did a mage capture him?" Korthin asked.

Mandy glanced up at the yellow dragon with a bemused expression. "No, he's just in detention."

"How could a mage capture him in the middle of all these humans?" Torinidus frowned at the earth dragon.

"What's detention?" Meth asked.

"It's what teachers do to you when you get in trouble," Mandy replied, studying the ground. She hoped no one stared close enough to see her talking to a tree.

Meth, Korthin, and Torinidus exchanged looks of worry.

"Is it very severe?" Meth asked, his voice almost a whisper.

"No, they just make you stay after school and sit still," she replied.

"What kind of stupid punishment is that?" Korthin asked.

"Quiet!" the other two dragons hissed though they had been about to ask the same question.

"Sorry, guys," Mandy said. "But I should start walking home. Anyone want to come with?"

"I will," Korthin crawled down the branch. He scrabbled down the trunk and dived headfirst into the dirt. His head popped out of the earth. "Beats sitting in this dumb tree all day."

"Okay, let's go," Mandy said. She slid her backpack off and pulled the zipper open. Korthin hopped into the opening and stuck his head out. Adrian and Mandy had agreed that the dragons could pass for toys. Korthin had tested the theory since he didn't mind being in the cramped pack unlike Meth and Torinidus.

The teen slung a strap over her shoulder and started down the sidewalk. The two dragons returned to staring at the school.

"Should we see if we can find him?" Torinidus wondered aloud.

Meth cast a sideways glance at him. "That's probably a bad idea."

"Yeah, we don't know if there are guards," the wind dragon nodded.

Mandy shrugged her shoulders as the heavy creature twisted around in her backpack. "Stop that. Someone's going to notice."

"Sorry, but your books are uncomfortable," Korthin growled. "And I'm cramped."

"You'll have to get used to it if you want to ride around," Mandy replied. As it turned out, her school supplies made the pack too cramped even for Korthin.

"Do you really need all this stuff?"

Blasts of green light struck the pavement around her, releasing a spray of smoke and sparks. She yelped in surprise. The mass in her pack squirmed its way out and landed on the pavement. Korthin growled, glaring upwards. Mandy followed his gaze to the middle level of a fire escape.

The Archer mage shimmered into view, leaning over the railing, his crossbow pointed at them. "I wouldn't move if I were you."

Korthin scoffed and spat a ball of yellow magic at him. Hunter leapt over the railing, the blast striking the metal bars and exploding. A green arrow launched form his weapon and flew toward Mandy's chest. Korthin leapt in front of her, spinning around and striking the arrow with his tail. The deflected blast exploded against a building wall before a second shot struck Korthin. The dragon flew backwards, collided with Mandy and knocked her to the ground.

The mage's feet hit the pavement, landing a few feet away from the pair. He took a step forward, resting his crossbow in both hands. "Fool, did you forget that I hunt your kind for a living? Without the human boy, you're nothing against me."

"Really?" Korthin asked, before leaping off a terrified Mandy and crashing through the sidewalk. Hunter fired a shot, but missed as the dragon's tail vanished below the ground.

"Fleeing for your life?" he wondered aloud.

A rumbling sound answered him as a crack broke into the sidewalk and expanded toward the green mage. He turned and pointed his crossbow at the crack. A large yellow orb burst from the ground, dirt and pieces of debris swirling around it. Hunter fired, but the shots exploded uselessly against the attack.

The ball launched forward and before the startled mage could react, it impacted and exploded against his chest. Korthin leapt out of the resulting dust cloud. He landed next to Mandy panting from exertion. The girl clenched her fist in victory. "All right!"

"How'd you like that?" the earth dragon called.

A bolt of green shot out of the cloud and embedded itself in the dragon's shoulder. The arrow exploded and knocked the yellow dragon against a wall.

Hunter stumbled out of the smoking crater. Mandy gasped as the mage pointed his weapon at her.

"You're coming with me," he growled in a pained voice.

Mandy took a step backward. She saw the mage's finger tighten on the trigger.

"You're not doing anything to her," Korthin gasped out, rolling to his feet. A large wound stretched across his shoulder.

The Archer mage scoffed and turned his weapon on the dragon. A flash of green knocked him back to the ground. He trained the weapon back on Mandy before she could move.

"Leave him alone!" she shouted.

"He's not the one I'm after," Hunter said, stepping towards her. He stopped in front of her and drove his fist into her gut. Mandy gasped and folded over, the mage slinging her over a shoulder. He turned and stepped forward, only to drop to one knee.

"Where are you taking her?" Korthin growled, using his uninjured arm to drag himself towards him.

"To the construction site," the mage replied, standing back up. "Tell the boy to come and fight me or I'll kill her."

Adrian hated sitting still for so long. A glance at his watch revealed he had only a few more minutes to go. He felt a growing need to get away, like he was desperately needed somewhere else.

A red snout popped into view out of the window he was staring at. Meth spread his wings and waved his arms. The nervous feeling in the teen's stomach intensified.

The teacher glanced up as Adrian's seat screeched across the floor. He grabbed his backpack and turned away.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?"

"I've got something important to do," Adrian replied. He didn't wait any longer and ran from the room. The flustered teacher shouted at him to stop.

He burst out the doors and leapt down the steps. Turning the corner, he skidded to a stop and glanced around for the fire dragon.

Meth and Torinidus emerged from the bushes. Korthin limped out after them. Adrian gasped at the sight of the dragon's wound.

"What happened?" he asked, leaning down and picking up the earth dragon.

"Hunter," Korthin winced in pain. "He attacked me and Mandy. I tried to fight him, but he captured her."

"Do you know where he took her?" Adrian asked, his panic growing.

"Construction site," Korthin replied, slumping against his arm.

"Come on, we need to get out of here," Adrian said.

He turned around to find his teacher glancing around. The man's eyes widened as he spotted the teen.

"Crap! Run!" Adrian shouted.

"Stop!" he shouted. An exclamation of pain followed and Adrian glanced back to find the teacher hopping around on one foot. The expensive leather shoe on his other foot shone with a bright yellow flame.

"He's not going anywhere," Meth said, soaring over his human friend's head. "Where are we going?"

"I need to get home," Adrian decided. "We need to do what we can for Korthin and we might need the bike against Hunter."

Hunter groaned and slumped against a girder. He pressed a hand to his chest and pulled it away to stare at the blood on his fingers. He clenched his fist and slammed it against the beam. "That cur! I will finish them all off today!"

"Not in that condition you won't," the Vizier said. He stood on several planks, facing an unconscious Mandy who had been tied to a support pillar. The Vizier waved his arm and a pentagram appeared at the girl's feet. A dark blue glow pulsed from the symbol and then it vanished. "Come here."

Hunter stumbled over to his superior. The black clad man raised an arm and placed his hand on the mage's chest. Purple flames covered Hunter's body and he screamed in pain. The Vizier removed his hand as Hunter stumbled back. The spell faded and Hunter sighed in relief. He touched his chest and felt no trace of his wound.

His head snapped up at the sound of an approaching motorcycle engine. He glanced back to find that the Vizier had vanished.

A fully armored Adrian pulled his bike to a stop at the base of the half-finished building. He frowned beneath his helmet as he dismounted the bike. Torinidus sat on the backseat, glancing around.

Hunter grunted as he landed on the ground in front of them. Ryu spun to face him, raising his fists. "Where's Mandy? You better not have hurt her."

"She's up there," the mage replied, pointing over his shoulder. "However, you won't be seeing her again."

A green glow surrounded Hunter's body as he morphed into his battle form.

"Torinidus, go and get Mandy out of here," Adrian said. "We'll hold him off."

The Archer mage scoffed and raised his crossbow, firing a burst of green energy. Ryu rolled to the side, avoiding the shots. He grabbed Meth's tail and wings, assembling them in gun mode. Hunter twisted around a blast of fire from the weapon.

Torinidus leapt from the bike and flew towards the building. The mage aimed at the dragon, but Ryu leapt at the mage and grabbed his arms, attempting to wrestle the weapon down.

Hunter growled and slammed an elbow into his adversary's face. The rider stumbled back as the crossbow came up. Arrows exploded against Ryu's armor. He fired a shot from his gun, but the mage shimmered out of sight, avoiding the fireball.

Ryu gasped and glanced around, slowly turning to scan his surroundings. An arrow slammed into his back and exploded. He spun around and fired a round of shots into the building. None of the blasts hit their unseen target.

"What's wrong?" Hunter's laughter echoed. "Why don't you come and get me?"

Torinidus pulled himself onto the metal beam. He scanned his surroundings before dashing over to the tied-up Mandy. He slammed headfirst into a barrier and nearly tumbled off the edge.

Mandy groaned and slowly raised her head. She watched as the dragon pulled himself back onto the narrow ledge. The ropes binding her and the magic seal probably saved her from falling off as she tried to step forward. Mandy gasped as the binds held her in place.

"Hold on, I'm going to get you out," Torinidus said. He tapped a wing talon against the barrier. A blue screen appeared for a moment along with the pentagram burned into the ground. "This isn't good."

"What? Can't you get rid of it?" Mandy asked.

"I don't know…" the dragon replied. "I've only read about these kinds of spells. I've never practiced dispelling one… He have to get you out of here though. Adrian and Hunter are fighting."

Explosions sounded from the floors beneath them.

"Well, hurry up!" she said. "Adrian needs your help."

"I have to be careful," Torinidus said. "If I mess up, the seal will drain all of your life force out."

Mandy gulped. "Couldn't you just leave it then?"

"No, it will eventually kill you either way," he said. "I don't know how long it will take though."

Ryu dashed across the concrete floor as the arrows rained down on him. He rolled behind an unfinished pillar and pressed his back against it. Adrian panted.

"He's on the third floor, crouching on the wood walkway going across it, I think," Meth informed.

"All right," Adrian said. He flipped the left segment of his belt up and pressed down on the legs.

"Flare up!"

A ball of fire flew from the belt and settled on the tip of his gun. Adrian swung around the pillar quickly taking aim at the spot Meth had indicated. The fireball shot forward and slammed into the wooden planks. Splinters and flame exploded from the impact.

"Missed," a voice said from behind them.

Adrian spun around just in time for a fist to slam into his face. He stumbled back as the Archer mage stepped forward and delivered a kick to the gut. Assembling his dagger, Ryu lunged forward, but Hunter leapt back.

The mage landed on one of the beams. Without thinking, Adrian jumped after him. Hunter brought up his crossbow and fired a shot into the airborne rider's chest. Ryu crashed back to the floor.

"Don't worry about me! Go help Adrian!" Mandy exclaimed at the unmoving dragon.

"Be quiet," Torinidus said. "I think I remember how to do this."

"Then hurry up!"

"Don't rush me," he said, stepping up to the edge of the seal. Placing a talon against the barrier he slowly traced a pattern across the purple screen. Mandy watched the dragon work in silence. Torinidus took a deep breath then exhaled slowly, a breathe of green wind magic touching the barrier.

The pentagram turned jet black and Mandy whimpered, afraid the dispelling had failed. Then the seal turned gray and slowly crumbled apart. She breathed a sigh of relief. Wind whistled past her accompanied with a slicing sound. The rope binding her fell to the ground.

"Hurry and get out of here," Torinidus ordered, gliding towards the sounds of fighting.

Adrian gasped as Hunter's arm squeezed around his neck. He tried to break the mage's hold, but he lacked the strength. A bolt of purple lightning struck the mage's back and his grip slackened. Ryu pulled his arm, flipping the mage over his back and onto the ground.

He leapt back as Torinidus dropped down and landed on his shoulder.

The Archer mage groaned as he pushed himself up. He glared at the storm dragon. "So, you're finally ready to fight? Now I can finish off the last of your tribe."

"That's enough out of you," Meth snapped.

Torinidus nodded and leapt from Adrian's shoulder. His legs flipped back as his tail and wings folded down and together. A barrel extended out below his neck. Ryu caught the gun in his left hand. The green jewel hovered out of Torinidus' mouth and over to drop into Ryu's right hand. He pushed the dragon tongue into the element slot and pulled back on the levers.

"Energize! Storm form!"

Hunter opened fire as the tiny green speck swirled around Ryu. Wind whipped around the rider, deflecting the arrows and changing the color of his armor. Lightning crackled around him as his visor lenses turned purple.

The Archer mage leapt toward him, firing an arrow from his crossbow. Ryu jumped toward him, firing a purple shot from his gun. The two projectiles exploded against each other. Green wind swirled around Ryu's foot as it collided with Hunter's chest. He used his other foot to kick off him and back flipped onto a beam. Hunter crashed into a wheelbarrow, knocking it over.

Adrian kicked off the beam, Torinidus aimed himself at the mage and he squeezed the trigger. Hunter tried to get up as bursts of purple light rained down on him. Ryu hit the ground running. Hunter swung his crossbow at him, but Ryu dropped to his knees and slid under the blow. He pointed his gun backwards and fired, hitting his opponent's back.

Hunter gasped in pain, but didn't hesitate. He leapt upwards landing on the second level and turning invisible. Ryu spun around and paused, not seeing his opponent. An arrow flew through the air and struck him in the shoulder.

He cried out in pain and only barely managed to roll away from a second arrow. Ryu jumped backwards, spinning in midair in the hopes of spotting his enemy. Landing on a beam he leapt again as another arrow flew towards him.

"Damn, he's not giving us time to look!" Meth snapped.

Adrian slashed an arrow out of the air with the part of his gun formed from Torinidus' wings. "You guys keep your eyes open! I'll focus on the arrows."

A loud clang sounded and Hunter appeared, falling through the air. Torinidus pulled himself forward and Adrian pulled the trigger. He trusted the dragon to hit their target and instead looked at where Hunter had fallen from. Mandy stood there, a dented paint can in her hand.

The Archer mage groaned as he hit the ground. He tried to push himself up, but only managed to raise himself into a kneeling position.

"Adrian! Now!" the storm dragon shouted.

"Right!" Adrian said, returning his attention to the mage. He pushed down on the Flare Valve's levers as he dropped off the beam, gun hand first.

"Flare up!"

A fireball flew around Ryu before settling in the Storm Pistol's mouth. A tornado shot from the dragon's maw, blasting down on the mage and slowing the rider's fall.

"Mess with my friends and you're going to get burnt!" Adrian shouted, pulling the trigger. A dragon-shaped lightning bolt burst from the barrel and slammed into Hunter, exploding.

Ryu dropped lightly to the ground, the wind dispersing. He looked at the flames his attack had left behind. A figure moved in the fire and Adrian gasped.

Hunter stumbled out of the flames, his hand still griping his crossbow. Bolts of dark purple magic arced across his body. He tried to raise his bow, but his grip failed and the weapon cluttered to the ground. Gasping in pain, he cried out and clutched his chest, the purple bolts growing brighter. "What? What's-"

The Archer mage exploded in a black fireball, Ryu shielded his face with an arm. He turned back to the flames as arrows of green light shot from them. The arrows flew around the building, collecting in a massive cloud near the top. Adrian stared in amazement for a moment, before the swarm dropped towards him.

He turned and ran from the truck-sized cloud, leaping out of the building. A glance back revealed the arrows were still following him. Adrian charged for his bike and jumped on, speeding away. He sped into the city and still the arrows chased him.

"What do we do?" Adrian wondered. "These things could chase us forever."

"The best defense is a good offense," Torinidus replied.

"Good idea, windbag," Meth said.

Adrian twisted the Flare Valve forward and pulled the levers back.

"Flare up!"

"I hope this works," Adrian said as the fireball hovered up beside him. The orb shot forward and fell back into his bike's mouth. Purple lightning surging through the bikes body as wind built up around it.

Ryu twisted the bike unto its side and lowered a foot to the pavement. The bike spun on the spot, the winds intensifying around it. A green tornado soon formed around them. The arrows slammed into the storm getting swept away or deflected. Adrian hollered in exertion as he spun around within the winds. The bike screeched to a stop and the tornado vanished, flinging the arrows against the surrounding street, cars, and buildings.

Adrian glanced around at the holes and dents left by the arrows exploding. "Whoops."

"What do you mean 'whoops'?" Meth asked. "We're still alive and in one piece right?"

"Which is more than you can say for the street," Adrian replied.

Adrian pulled his bike to a stop in front of the construction site. Mandy slowly walked toward him as he dismounted. Meth and Torinidus dropped from his waist, shifting back into their dragon forms. His armor dissolved into wisps of wind magic.

Mandy rushed forward and threw her arms around his neck. She sobbed into his shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay. You're safe now," Adrian said, a bit uncomfortably.

"I can't believe you go through things like this now," Mandy said. "I was afraid you wouldn't make it."

Adrian gently pushed her away, leaving his hands on her shoulders and giving a reassuring squeeze. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I get into fights all the time remember?"

"Besides he's got us now," Meth said. "There's no way the four of us can lose."

"How's Korthin?" Mandy asked.

"He should be fine," Torinidus replied. "Earth dragons are pretty sturdy."

"That's good," Mandy said, wiping tears from her eyes.

"Unless my cat gets him, or my aunt cleans out my room and mistakes him for a broken action figure," Adrian laughed.

"Do we really look like action figures?" Meth asked the other dragon. Torinidus shrugged in reply.

"Come on, you're parents are probably worried about you," Adrian said.

"Nah, my grandmother predicted I'd be home late today."

They turned and started toward the motorcycle as Meth and Torinidus leapt onto Adrian's shoulders.

"By the way, I need to thank you for saving me," Mandy said to the storm dragon. "How about I give you a nickname? How about Tori?"

"What's wrong with Torinidus?"

"It's too long."

The waves crashed loudly against the beach. A lone figure sat on the dock, a fishing line in one hand and a beer in the other. The stool was starting to get uncomfortable and the combination of drowsiness and alcohol was dulling his mind. He glanced up at the moon and sighed.

He reeled in his line and stood up.

"Hey!"

The old man paused at the voice and glanced around. No one but him stood on the deck. He shrugged, contributing the sound to his imagination and started forward again.

"Hey!" the voice whispered again. "Over here in the water!"

He turned around, now certain that he'd heard the voice. Setting down his gear, he slowly approached the end of the dock. The voice giggled, it remind him of his young granddaughter, full of life and childish innocence. He cautiously leaned his head over the edge.

A jet of something wet hit him from behind. He cried out as he fell headfirst off the dock and splashed into the ocean. The voice giggled as a serpentine shape slide off the deck and into the water.

The old man paddle to the surface and gasped in air. The cold water had woken him up. He looked around for the one who'd tricked him, but saw only water and sand.

Author's Note: Wow, that was pretty long huh? So did anyone notice the Goseiger reference in this chapter?


	15. Episode 15: Evil Melody

Disclaimer: I don't own Kamen Rider, except for the concept behind Ryu.

Episode 15

Evil Melody

_Ryu twisted the bike unto its side and lowered a foot to the pavement. The bike spun on the spot, the winds intensifying around it. A green tornado soon formed around them. The arrows slammed into the storm getting swept away or deflected. Adrian hollered in exertion as he spun around within the winds. The bike screeched to a stop and the tornado vanished, flinging the arrows against the surrounding street, cars, and buildings._

_Adrian glanced around at the holes and dents left by the arrows exploding. "Whoops."_

_"What do you mean 'whoops'?" Meth asked. "We're still alive and in one piece right?"_

* * *

"What do you mean we can't practice today?" Meth demanded. "You already skipped a lesson this week because of your detention!"

"Quiet!" Adrian hissed. "My aunt and uncle are down in the kitchen."

The red dragon stood on his dresser alongside Tori. They had come in through the window. Adrian was starting to regret letting them in.

"I skipped out of detention," he replied, exasperated. "So now I have to do some community service over the weekend."

"At least you can do something," Korthin sighed from the floor of the closet. He raised his head out of the nest of blankets. "If I have to stay here much longer I think I'll go crazy."

"You can't go anywhere until your wound's healed," Tori shot a stern glance at the yellow dragon.

The earth dragon muttered angrily. "Couldn't I be moved to Mandy's house? She doesn't have an evil cat."

"Our cat's not evil," Adrian pulled a shirt out from under his bed. "He's just not used to you guys."

The cat began scratching at Adrian's door when Korthin's stay started. He hoped the dragon would recover soon; his aunt and uncle were starting to get suspicious. They probably thought he was involved with a gang or something. Adrian could sense some kind of talk coming.

"Shouldn't you get going?" Tori asked, glancing at the alarm clock.

Adrian sighed, pulled on his shirt, and walked to the door. He listened for the sound of scratching, but heard nothing. Twisting the knob, he slowly pushed the door open. The tabby cat sat in the hall, staring intently at the crack between the door and wall. Adrian slid out and closed the door after him.

The cat stared up at him and the teen shook his head, a stern expression on his face. The tabby meowed impatiently.

"Shoo!" Adrian waved a hand at the cat. The animal reluctantly turned and walked off.

He trudged down the stairs, frowning. Forcing his expression into a smile, he stepped into the kitchen. Uncle Henry glanced up from his newspaper, looking uncharacteristically serious. Aunt Valerie didn't look up from the eggs frying on the stove.

Adrian sighed.

* * *

Waves crashed against the shore, as the yellow-clad jogger trotted along the sidewalk. The man looked to be nearing forty, but still in good shape. He jogged every morning along the beach.

Soft humming reached his ears, causing him to pause. He glanced around, but found no one else on the street. The sound grew louder and the jogger shook his head in confusion. Turing towards the beach, he spotted a figure in the surf.

The man found himself turning and stepping onto the sand. He walked down the beach, his eyes dull and his mouth hanging agape.

The humming woman smirked and stepped back into the water. Her body glowed blue and her skin turned pale green. Green Fish scales covered her lower body. Shells and coral covered her chest. Her blonde hair turned pink with a starfish pinned in it.

Completely thrilled by her spell, the jogger didn't notice the mage's transformation. He splashed into the ocean, moving faster as the sound's source drifted farther away. The waves reached his waist and then his shoulders.

The mermaid mage giggled as her victim began swimming. He looked like he'd be able to beat the record distance her previous catch had set before exhaustion drowned him.

* * *

Adrian wanted to say something to his uncle, but the truck cab remained quiet. Henry reached for the radio and fiddled with it for a moment, but turned it off a few minutes later.

"I'm sorry," Adrian said for the sixth time in the last few days.

His uncle sighed and gripped the steering wheel. Henry disliked being confrontational. "I just wish you'd tell me why you walked out. What was so important that you had to leave? You never skipped detention before."

"I know. Do the crime, do the time," Adrian sighed, still thinking he hadn't deserved the punishment.

"Ready to tell me why you left?"

The teen sighed and stared at the dashboard, not wanting to meet his uncle's face. He could probably lie and get away with it, but he had never lied to his uncle before. Just the thought of it disturbed him.

"Here we are," Henry said.

Adrian raised his head and spotted the white community service van. The truck pulled to a stop by the curb. Stepping out of the vehicle, Adrian glanced out toward the ocean.

Henry approached the group of volunteers. A man with dirty blonde hair noticed him and split off from the group to meet him. The stranger extended his hand. "I'm Dale Reynard. I'm more or less in charge of our little cleanup group."

"Henry Meadows," he shook Dale's hand. "This is my nephew, Adrian."

His uncle glanced back and found Adrian still next to the truck, staring out at the ocean. "Adrian!"

The teen jumped out of his trance and walked over to the two adults. "Sorry, I guess I spaced out a little…"

"You guys ready to get started?" Dale asked.

"Guys?" Adrian frowned.

"I volunteered to help," Henry smiled at him.

_Great, now he doesn't trust me to stick around here,_ Adrian thought. _Please don't let there be any mages near here._

* * *

Meth sighed. He lay on his belly in the sand, his head leaning on a paw. Torinidus padded along the edge of the water, looking for shells.

"This is so boring," the fire dragon sighed, tracing shapes in the sand.

"Come on, help me look for shells," Tori called, dashing away from a swell of water.

Meth scoffed and looked away, spotting a small shape scuttling across the sand. His tail wagged back and forth as he watched the crab. Jumping up, the dragon charged towards the crustacean.

The creature scuttled backwards into the tall grass. Meth bounded into the plants and glanced around. He sniffed the air for the crab's scent, but another smell overpowered it.

"What the-?" he stepped forward, following the smell. It reminded him of dragon, but mixed with the scent of the ocean.

Blades of grass rustled behind him. He glanced over his shoulder, watching for more movement. "Torinidus?"

The plants rustled again, this time in front of him. He spun his head around and saw the leaves moving. Meth opened his wings and leapt into the air. Flying over the ground, he followed the sound of movement.

A voice giggled ahead of him and the dragon growled. He dived into the growth and collided with something. Meth and his quarry tumbled across the sand, coming to a stop next to a fence.

"No fair! You play rough!"

The fire dragon rolled to his feet. He turned toward the voice's owner. A bright blue dragon-like creature lay on the sand in front of him. It raised its long neck. Its snout was short and a pair of curved horns extended from the back of its head. A white fin extended down its back. It had four platinum fins instead of legs. Its tail was flat like a rudder. Vibrant green eyes turned to look at the fire dragon.

"You're a water dragon!" Meth exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I live here, dummy," the water dragon replied, its voice revealing it as female. "What are you doing here? You don't exactly act like a beach person."

"Dragon, not person," he growled.

"Do you normally chase after peo- dragons?" she asked.

"Only suspicious ones hiding in the undergrowth," Meth replied.

"What's your name, grumpy?"

Bristling, the dragon narrowed his eyes. "Methalgresoth."

"How about if I just call you Methy?" she said. "I'm Rairin, but you can just call me Rai."

Meth's eye twitched. "Are you the only one of your kind here?"

"Yeah," Rai replied, losing her cheery tone. "The rest of them just up and disappeared on me."

The fire dragon frowned and took a step towards her. "Would you like to meet some other dragons? I don't want you around, but they'd be pissed if I didn't invite you to meet them at least."

Frowning in thought, the water dragon turned away from him. "Okay! But first you have to catch me!"

"What?"

The water dragon pushed with her flippers and leapt into a clump of grass.

"Hey! I don't have time for games!" Meth snapped.

"I bet that's why you're so grumpy all the time," she called back.

Huffing, he turned and flew back towards the beach. Rai stuck her head out of the bushes and watched him leave with a sad expression.

The disappointed mage swam back towards the shore. With no new record to show, the only thing she'd gotten was the gold watch off her victim's wrist.

She reached the shallows and began walking out of the surf. The mermaid paused as she spotted a small green creature sitting on the sand. Tori examined a shell, unaware of the danger behind him.

Smirking, she slowly snuck towards the dragon. She raised her hand, brandishing her sharpened nails.

Meth roared as he dropped out of the sky. He spat a fireball that exploded against the mage's armor. She stumbled back into the surf. Tori heard the commotion and spun around. Growling, the mage leapt at him, but the dragon took to the air.

"You should pay more attention!" Meth shouted.

"Yeah, because mages pop out of the water all the time," Tori said, circling above the creature. He swept his wings back and dived. The dragon spat several bursts of lightning, but the mage rolled out of the way.

* * *

Adrian stabbed his stick into another bundle of paper trash. He shook the paper off into the bag he carried. The group was quickly progessing down the beach.

"Hey. Is that lightning?"

Turning around, Adrian glanced upward. A flash of purple fell out of the sky and struck the ground in the distance.

"Oh, man," the teen groaned as flashes of orange light rained down after the lightning.

He glanced around for his uncle. Henry stood a few feet from him, staring at the sky like everyone else. Adrian took several steps away and turned to leave.

"Where are you going?"

Stopping, Adrian groaned. "I just remembered! I… uh, need to call Mandy about a homework assignment. My cell phone's still in the truck. I'm just going to run and get it."

"I've got my cell," Henry said, reaching for his pocket.

Gritting his teeth, Adrian continued. "I'd rather not waste your minutes. I'll be right back."

He sprinted across the sand, towards the flashes of light.

"It's no trouble," Henry said, pulling out his phone. He paused and glanced around, spotting Adrian running off. "Hey! I have plenty of minutes!"

* * *

The mage spun to the side, avoiding a red blur. Tori dived towards her back, but she spun around and backhanded the dragon into the sand. Meth growled and spat a fireball, but she dodged it.

Rai stepped out of the grass and gasped as she saw the mage toss a starfish at Meth. The star hit the dragon's chest and knocked him out of the sky. The water dragon gasped and scurried back behind cover, leaving only her head and neck sticking out.

"Now, I'll finish you," the mage said, brandishing another star.

A stone flew through the air and struck the mermaid's head, sending her stumbling back. Adrian slid down a sand dune and dashed over to the fallen Meth.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Meth growled and jumped up. "Yeah, let's fry this fish!"

The dragon's neck folded up and Adrian grabbed his head. The Ryu belt unfolded as he pulled the dragon off the ground. He slung the belt around his waist and raised his arms.

"Henshin!" Adrian shouted, pushing Meth's horns together. Fiery wings exploded from his back and a burning dragon head rose above him, roaring. He pushed the button on the buckle and the wings folded around him, transforming into armor. The dragon head enveloped his face, forming Ryu's helmet. The sand at his feet crystallized as his suit glowed red hot for a few seconds.

"Cool!" Rai exclaimed.

"So you're the one I've heard about on the news?" the mage asked. "The Kamen Rider eliminating my kind…"

"And you're next!" Meth growled.

Adrian raised his fists and charged at the mage. He threw a punch, but she dodged. A scaly leg shot up and kneed him in the chest armor. The Rider stumbled back as a pair of starfish appeared in his adversary's hands. She tossed them and they exploded against his chest.

Ryu cried out in pain and dropped to one knee. The mage laughed and charged forward. Reaching the rider, she threw a punch. Adrian dropped onto his back and kicked, sweeping her legs out from under her. He slammed his heel down on her stomach.

They rolled apart and stood up, facing each other. Bolts of purple lightning struck the mage's side. Adrian charged forward as the mage dodged Tori's next blasts. He leapt into the air and thrust his foot out, striking her in the chest and sending her flying backwards.

Drawing Meth's wings and tail, Adrian combined them into gun mode. He thrust the gun forward and fired. The blasts exploded against the sand around the mage.

"You missed," Tori frowned.

"He missed," Rai sighed.

"Ha! Missed!" the mage laughed.

"All right, I get it!" Adrian snapped. He raised the gun and fired another shot. This one exploded against the mage's gut.

Growling, the mermaid waved her arms, a watery glow forming in her hands. The light subsided, revealing an ornate gold trident. She thrust the weapon forward and bolts of blue lightning shot from it. The attack exploded around Ryu, kicking up sand and smoke.

He pulled his gun apart and combined it in dagger mode. Ryu charged forward. The mage slammed the butt of her trident into the sand and began to hum. Adrian paused at the sound, lowering his weapon.

"Hey! What's wrong?" Meth demanded.

"I-, uh-," Adrian shook his head as the mage continued humming. His grip on the dagger slackened and the weapon dropped to the ground.

The mage cackled and raised her trident, bolts of lightning shooting from it and exploding against Ryu's chest. Adrian screamed in pain as the blast knocked him backwards.


	16. Episode 16: Rain On

Disclaimer: I don't own Kamen Rider. Kamen Rider is Japanese and the only Japanese I speak is catchphrases… from Kamen Rider. Ryu is mine though.

Episode 16

Rain On

_Growling, the mermaid waved her arms, a watery glow forming in her hands. The light subsided, revealing an ornate gold trident. She thrust the weapon forward and bolts of blue lightning shot from it. The attack exploded around Ryu, kicking up sand and smoke._

_He pulled his gun apart and combined it in dagger mode. Ryu charged forward. The mage slammed the butt of her trident into the sand and began to hum. Adrian paused at the sound, lowering his weapon._

_"Hey! What's wrong?" Meth demanded._

_"I-, uh-," Adrian shook his head as the mage continued humming. His grip on the dagger slackened and the weapon dropped to the ground._

_The mage cackled and raised her trident, bolts of lightning shooting from it and exploding against Ryu's chest. Adrian screamed in pain as the blast knocked him backwards._

He rolled to the side avoiding another jolt of lightning. Landing on his knees, Ryu tossed his dagger. The blade hit the mage's chest, drawing a small explosion of sparks. The mermaid shrieked in pain. Ryu stood up as the mage charged him.

The trident neared Adrian's chest. Without enough time to dodge, he grabbed the trident's two points and yanked it to the side. The weapon slid past him and he brought an arm up. The mage's face connected with his arm and her feet slid out from under her. Ryu spun to face her, but she stabbed her trident back and struck his chest armor. The armor sparked against the blow.

Adrian grunted as the attack threw him back against the ground. He hopped back to his feet. He raised his fists and grunted. His opponent pointed her staff at him and slowly stepped to the side. Without warning, the mermaid mage turned and made a break for it. Ryu gasped and dashed after her.

* * *

Placing his hands on his hips, Henry swept his gaze over the street once more. He stood next to his truck, trying to convince himself that his nephew had just taken a detour on his way back.

He couldn't understand how his obedient nephew had undergone such a drastic change.

A loud metallic thud sounded in his ears. Henry turned around to see a red figure roll off the hood of a parked car and hit the pavement only a few yards away. A green creature leapt after the figure, swinging a trident. The weapon slashed across the mysterious man's armor. Henry gasped and ducked behind the hood of his truck, peering over it to watch the battle.

Ducking under the swinging trident, Ryu delivered a kick to his opponent's side. She retaliated with another slash, followed by a thrust. The trident pushed him back.

"Adrian! Catch!" a voice shouted from above.

The Rider glanced up as Tori dropped his dagger. He caught the weapon and pointed it at the mage.

"Crap, crap," Henry muttered, crawling around to the other side of his truck and reaching into his pocket. He pulled out his keys and dropped them in his panic. Muttering a swear, he reached under the truck for them.

A soft humming filled the air. Henry paused as the sound seemed to drown out his panic, his mind going blank. The effect hit Adrian, causing him to lower his weapon.

The mage chuckled and beckoned with one hand. "Now, shall we see if you can beat the record?"

"Damn! Snap out of it, Adrian!" Meth shouted as the human took a shaky step forward.

A shrill whistle cut through the glorious humming. The mage gasped, but kept at her melody. A series of chirps and screeches followed.

"Stop that!" the mermaid shouted, whirling around and trying to pinpoint the source of the noise. "How dare you ruin my beautiful melody!"

Ryu grunted as he regained his senses. It took a few seconds to recall what he'd been doing, but the shrieking monster jogged his memory.

"Ha!" he shouted after closing the distance between them and slicing her across the chest. He kicked the trident from her hands and scored two more slashes. She stumbled back and gasped, holding her arms over her aching wounds.

"This isn't over!" the siren growled before turning and hoping over a car.

Ryu gasped and ran after her, but by the time he got around the vehicle the mage had vanished.

"For a fish, she's pretty good at running," Meth said.

"Yeah," Adrian unclipped his belt, letting Meth fall back to the ground. His armor dispersed into a cloud of fire. The falling dragon folded back together and landed on his feet. He leapt onto the teen's shoulder. Tori swooped down and landed on his other shoulder.

Henry stared at his nephew. He rubbed his eyes and took a second look, but the scene remained the same. Adrian stood on the street with two flying lizards perched on his shoulders.

"Tori, did you make that racket?" Adrian asked.

The storm dragon shook his head and nodded towards a dune. "It came from there."

"All right, we know you're there so quit hiding," Meth growled.

Rai poked her head out of a bush and slid down the side of the hill. She leapt off the bottom and landed on the sidewalk. Adrian glanced down at her, now getting used to meeting new dragons.

"Thanks for the save," Adrian said. "What's your name?"

"I'm Rairin, but you can call me Rai," the water dragon chirped.

"I'm Adrian," the teen said. "This is Tori and Meth."

"I already know Methy," she said.

"Really?" he asked. He shot an accusing glance aside at the dragon. Meth bristled angrily.

"She's a hatchling, we don't need a hatchling hanging around," the fire dragon said.

"I'm not a hatchling!" she roared. "You don't sound very old yourself."

"It's not about age," Meth replied. "It's about maturity."

Rai opened her mouth to reply, but Adrian held up his arms, gesturing for calm. "Guys, I'd like to help work this out, but my uncle could show up any minute now. Can you discuss this somewhere else?"

"Fine," Meth said.

"I don't think we have anything to talk about," Rai huffed.

"Tori, can you keep things civil?" Adrian asked.

Meth huffed and crossed his front legs as his friend nodded.

The two winged dragons leapt into the air, while the water dragon turned and pulled herself down the beach. Adrian shook his head and turned around.

Henry gasped and ducked back behind his truck. Ducking low, he snuck back along the row of cars. After a block, he turned around and stepped onto the sidewalk. Glancing back, he saw Adrian making his way towards him. The teen had his eyes on the ground and didn't see his uncle.

"Adrian…"

He stopped and raised his head. The two stared at each other for a moment.

"Did you call Mandy?" Henry asked.

"Uh, yeah," Adrian nodded. "I was just heading back."

"All right, let's go then."

He turned around and Adrian followed at his side. Both avoided eye contact lost in their own thoughts. Adrian felt no relief from his uncle's silence.

* * *

Rai glanced upwards, watching the two winged dragons circle overhead. They reminded her of hawks a bit, but she could still make out their bright colors. She stopped on the beach and waited for the boys to land.

Meth swooped down and landed in front of her. Tori circled around and landed across from both of them. The fire dragon snorted and folded his wings.

"So you know what I think of this idea," he said. "Having a kid around will only cause trouble."

"I bailed your tail out of the fire just now," Rai growled, thrusting her head at him.

Meth glared at her, their faces inches apart. "How much do you know about magic? How fast are you on land? You're not suited for helping us."

Tori sighed. The storm dragon wasn't ready to deal with a screaming match. "Rai, was it? Are there anymore water dragons near here?"

"No, they all disappeared some time ago," she replied calming down a bit. She backed away from Meth.

Both males shared a glance, imagining the cause of the mass disappearance.

"If you don't have a village anymore, you're welcome to join up with us," Tori said gently. "There aren't a lot of us, but we're safer together."

"Ha!" Rai scoffed. "I'm not joining up with you if it means being treated like a hatchling. I've survived months without you and I'll be just fine staying that way."

She turned and leapt into the surf. The duo stepped forward, but the tide pulled her out. They glanced at each other, both frowning.

"She'll be safer out there," Meth decided. A wave crashed against the shore as if in agreement with him.

* * *

The blonde-haired woman smirked as she stood on a cliff, overlooking the ocean. The sun slowly set over the water, creating a brilliant image of orange light on dark water. She couldn't bear the thought of not seeing that deep blue expanse every sunrise or sunset. Her hunting ground covered the ocean. To keep them safe, she needed to kill that boy and his dragons.

Her wounds from the fight that morning were almost healed. Pressing her lips together, she whistled. She morphed into her mermaid form as the shrill note filled the air.

* * *

"So she left?" Adrian frowned.

He sat on the edge of his bed. The window stood open, Meth sat in it, looking out at the darkening sky. Tori perched on a bed post and Korthin slithered across the floor.

"It's not my fault," Meth said. "I was as civil as I'm capable of being."

"That's probably true," Tori said. The fire dragon shot a glare over his shoulder at him.

"With any luck, he'll be to hold a pleasant conversation with a stranger by the end of the year," Korthin joked.

"She wasn't cut out for fighting the mages anyway," Meth insisted.

"How are things with your guardians?" Tori asked, changing the subject.

"My uncle's acting odd," Adrian replied. He pushed himself to his feet and began pacing. "He hasn't said much to me since we fought that mage today."

"Could he know?" Korthin asked.

"No way!" the teen said. "My uncle wouldn't be able to keep quiet if he figured it out. He'd definitely say something."

"Hasn't he been rather quiet anyway?" Meth asked.

"This is a different kind of quiet," Adrian answered.

"What the heck does that mean?" the fire dragon frowned.

A tingling sensation shot up Adrian's back. The dragons all tensed up. A soft whistle filled Adrian's ears.

"It's her… the mage."

"Yeah," Tori nodded.

"Let's go," Adrian said, opening the door to his room.

"All right! Time for a fight!" Korthin exclaimed. He grunted as pain flashed through his shoulder.

"Healthy enough to move around and healthy enough to fight are two different things," Tori told the earth dragon as he followed Meth out the window. "You're staying here."

"Darn."

Adrian calmly descended the steps. He stopped at their foot and glanced over at the couch. His aunt and uncle looked up from the TV.

"I need to go out for a while," he said.

"Absolutely not," his aunt said.

The teen slumped. He expected such an answer. Sneaking out was still possible, but he didn't want to go behind their back again. "Truth is-."

Henry placed a hand on his wife's shoulder. "Let me talk to him." She turned to him with a confused expression. "Trust me."

He stood up and walked past Adrian into the kitchen. His nephew followed him into the garage. Henry walked over to a bench and picked up a red motorcycle helmet. A sad smile spread across his face. "Did I ever tell you what your dad wanted to do when he was a kid?"

Adrian shook his head. "I don't think so."

"He wanted to help people," Henry said, turning to face him. "The exact job varied, but it was always police this or fireman that. He wanted to be a lawyer for a while, too. One time when I asked him he just smiled and said 'I'm going to be a hero.'"

"Are you-?" Adrian shifted uncomfortably.

"I saw you before…" he said. "Fighting that thing. I couldn't believe it and I had no idea what to say or what I should even think of it. I pay enough attention to the news to know about the masked rider, but I never…" he fell silent for a moment. "If your dad was still with us, I'm sure he'd be proud of what you're doing, so I'm not going to stand in your way."

Adrian gasped. Henry stepped over to him and held out the helmet. Hands trembling, Adrian reached out and took it. He stared down at it, tears welling up in his eyes. Wiping his sleeve over his eyes, he asked. "What about Aunt Valerie?"

"Don't worry, I'll take care of her," Henry said, clapping a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you going to tell her?"

"Not yet," he replied, frowning now. "Not until you say I can."

Adrian nodded and turned to the garage door. He pushed it up and glanced back for a few seconds. Henry nodded back at him.

"Come on, let's go!" Meth's voice hissed down at him.

Adrian slipped the helmet over his head and retrieved the old bike from where it sat. Flames covered the machine, transforming it into the Ryu Roader. He heard a gasp of amazement from the garage. Mounting the bike, he rolled out of the drive and down the darkening street.

* * *

A mechanical roar drowned out the mage's song. She turned around. Adrian pulled the bike to a stop in front of her. He pulled off his helmet and dismounted.

"Meth."

The red dragon swooped down and wrapped around his waist. He pushed the horns together and wings extended from his back. The flames illuminated the cliff top in flickering orange light. A dragon head roared up over Adrian.

"Henshin!" Tapping the button, the wings covered him and his armor formed. The dragon's mouth enveloped his face, forming his helmet. The armor glowed red hot in the cool night air.

"Mess with me and you're going to get burnt!"

The mage scoffed. "Your fire magic won't be any help against me."

A pair of starfish appeared in his hands and she flung them at the Rider. He crossed his arms over his chest, the stars sparked off his shoulders. Grunting, he spread his arms and leapt into the air. The mage dodged his foot and jumped at him. Ryu managed to block her punch, nearly falling off balance. He thrust his knee into his opponent's gut.

Her arm shot up, slashing the starfish in her hand across his chest. Sparks exploded from his armor as he fell back. Her trident shimmered into existence in the mage's arms. She thrust it down, but Adrian rolled aside.

Ryu crouched down, fists raised. He slowly stood up as the mage turned her weapon towards him. The weapon thrust forward, releasing bolts of energy. Adrian half-leapt half-fell to the side. As he spun around, he connected Meth's tail and wings. His spin turned him back towards the mage. He aimed and pulled the trigger. A lance of red light struck her forehead, releasing a spray of sparks.

"Yes!" the teen exclaimed as he hit the ground. He scrambled back up and mounted his bike.

The mage hissed in agony, hunched over and with a hand over her face. Her screeching carried none of the beauty that her humming did. The roar of the bike attracted her attention and she looked up just as it reached her. The mouth on the front clamped down on her arm and dragged her forward. The sandy ground scrapped over her back.

* * *

Rai didn't feel much better after swimming for hours. Usually the colorful coral or fish would cheer her up. Nothing comforted her now though. She desperately wanted the company of other dragons. Without a way to measure time, she didn't know how long it had been since her pod had vanished.

She sat on the seabed, hunched over on a rock. She imagined several nasty things she could do to Meth. Push him off a dock or splatter him with a mud ball. A few ideas made her chuckle, but her mood didn't improve.

With a sigh, the water dragon leapt off the rock, drifting towards the silt below. Rai hit the mud and stirred up a black cloud. Something hard touched her front flipper. She floated back and watched as the dirt cleared. A white skull poked halfway out of the seabed. She gasped and swam forward, looping her tail around the object and pulling it free.

"No… no way."

* * *

"Don't you think this has dragged on long enough?" Meth asked as they reached the beach.

"Yeah, I guess," Adrian replied and placed a foot down, pulling the bike into a donut.

The Ryu Roader's mouth opened and sent the mage rolling across the sand. She recovered remarkably quick and stood back up. Adrian dismounted and drew his dagger. The mage reformed her trident.

The Rider charged at her. He leapt as she swung her trident. He kicked off the top of the weapon and flipped around behind her. He slashed her across the back. The mermaid spun around. Ryu ducked under her swing and leapt back. She thrust forward and the spikes collided with his shoulder. He stumbled back and blocked another thrust with his dagger.

He kicked the trident aside and closed the distance, swinging his dagger down. She blocked his arm with the shaft of her weapon. The two spun apart. The mermaid mage thrust her trident forward and bolts of blue lightning slammed into Ryu's chest. He cried out as the attack knocked him to the ground.

"I'm through playing," the mage said. "I'll discover the source of the sound that disturbed our battle last time and make them pay for ruining my performance."

The mage slowly clenched her fist as she spoke and then began humming. Adrian threw his hands over the sides of his helmet, but it did no good. The song still reached him and he found his thoughts clouding.

Tori dived out of the sky. He spat a bolt of purple lightning at the back of the mage's head, but she spun around and blocked it with her trident. He tried to pull out of his dive, but she smacked him with the blunt end of her weapon. The storm dragon tumbled through the air and crashed into the sand.

"I knew you were around here," she hissed. "But you're not the one I want."

Spinning back around, she blasted Ryu who was in the process of rising back to his feet. The bolt knocked him back unto the sand. The mage huffed and charged at him. He couldn't rise quick enough and the trident stabbed into his chest, knocking him onto his back. A scaly foot pressed down on his chest and the three golden spikes hovered over his face.

"Say your prayers," the mage said.

Shining blue spurts slammed into the mage. She cried out in pain as sparks exploded from her. A blast struck the star in her hair, knocking it out and leaving two neatly cut halves lying in the sand.

Whimpering the mage turned towards the ocean. Rai exploded out from the tides. She slashed at the mage's upper body with her fins as the mage tried futilely to bat her off. Rai slashed a fin across her face, earning a pained howl.

The water dragon leapt towards Adrian. She hooked the straps of his belt with her front flippers and stared at his buckle, Meth's face. "Listen, Methy, we don't like each other, but this has suddenly become very personal for me. So stop sending me away, because I'm not! Going! Anywhere!"

The dragon belt stayed silent for a moment. "Fine, I understand… and I'm sorry."

"Save it," she said, pulling herself up and flipping through the air. Adrian caught her with his left hand. Her fins folded up alongside her head and tail. Her body split apart, lengthening her new form. Her mouth opened, revealing the blue crystal inside.

Ryu pulled the crystal free and slotted it into the right side of his belt. He yanked the levers back and the dragon's tongue thrust out.

"Change! Water form!" Rai's voice announced as an orb of blue light hovered up to Ryu's helmet. The orb expanded into a mass of water that washed over his armor, turning it blue and platinum. Green flames flashed over his helmet lenses, shifting them to match Rai's eye color.

"Hey! Don't go changing the form announcements by yourself!" Meth growled.

"This one sounds much cooler though," Rai argued.

The mage turned to face Ryu's new form. A long slash stretched from her cheek to her forehead. She thrust her trident forward and launched a blast of magic. Ryu knocked the blast aside with Rai, knocking the blast into the water. The explosion shot a jet of water into the air.

The water dragon extended farther, now as long as the mage's trident. Ryu spun the double bladed staff around and leveled it at his opponent. "Now, I'll wash away your evil."

Growling, the mermaid charged him. She swung her staff, but Ryu blocked with his halberd shaft. Knocking the trident away, he slashed at the mage. Sparks exploded across her shoulder. He swung again, but she blocked. Ducking low, he swept her feet out from under her with the pole. She rolled away as he tried to score an overhead slash. Ryu charged after her and kicked her in the chest. He swung the halberd and scored a hit. The blow knocked her flying.

Enraged, the mage stood up. With her free hand, she tossed a throwing star at the Rider. The projectile seemed to slow down as it neared him. He spun around the weapon and ran forward, his steps quick and light across the sand. He rolled under a bolt of lightning and reached his opponent. He knocked the trident from the mage's hand and slashed the halberd across her chest three times in succession. Yelling, Ryu raised the weapon and slammed it into her.

The mage flew through the air and crashed down near the water. She scrambled across the sand and into the waves, disappearing as they pulled her out.

"You won't escape this time!" Adrian shouted. He tossed Rai into the air, where she transformed into her dragon form. "Check on Tori quick. I'll be right back."

The dragon nodded as Ryu turned to his bike. He leapt into the air, twisting around to land on the motorcycle. He revved the engine and turned towards the ocean. Pulling the levers on the forward facing Flare Valve, a golden dragon head emerged from it and released a fireball.

As he rode forward, the Ryu Roader swallowed the fireball. A gentle blue glow pulsed over the bike. The wheels hit the water and rode across the surface of it. Ryu pulled the bike into a wide circle and held the pattern. A whirlpool slowly formed in the center of the bike's loop. The glow around the bike formed into an image of Rai's head and Adrian turned into the whirlpool. He disappeared into the depths and the vortex vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

Rai looked up from checking the Storm Dragon. He only seemed to be unconscious. She could still feel Ryu's presence through her Dragon Tongue in his belt, but not make out anything that was going on.

Water exploded into the air as Ryu and his bike flew out of the ocean. The bike skidded to a stop on the sand. The mage on the other hand tumbled across the ground.

"How's Tori?" Adrian asked as he dismounted.

"He's fine," Rai's voice said from the belt as her body leapt into his hand and unfolded into the Water Halberd. The teen gasped as the weapon jerked his arm down and pointed at the mermaid mage. "Are you the one that killed all of the water dragons on this coast?"

"It wasn't me," the mage shook her head. "It was the Slayer Jamon."

"How do you know that?" Meth asked.

The mage gasped and didn't answer.

"You're the one that called for their extermination!" Ryu exclaimed, pointing with his free hand.

Her eyes widened and she scrambled up. A moment passed, then a smile spread across her face. "You still won't beat me."

She hummed a few notes, but a loud screeched from the belt drowned her out.

"You! You're the one that ruined my performance!" she exclaimed.

"I'm cancelling your show," Ryu flipped the Flare Valve up. "Indefinitely."

He slammed the levers down, ejecting another fireball. He pulled back on the fin near the halberd's middle. Rai's mouth opened and Adrian clicked a button on the shaft. Her mouth snapped closed on the fireball which exploded into a mass of flame. The fire turned blue and swirled around the staff tip, wrapping tightly over the blade. Ryu waved the staff around, the blue light trailing after the blade's arc. The injured mage sat helpless as the Rider charged at her. He slashed the charged blade through the mage's midriff twice. Spinning around, he rested the Water Halberd over his shoulder.

The mage gasped, as her body slid partway off her legs before she exploded in a green fireball. Ryu glanced over his shoulder at the charred sand that was the only remains of the mage.

"Farewell… monster."


End file.
